It was Jacques Houdek who once said, ‘Dare to dream, make a meal’ – ok yes, that wasn’t quite the lyric, but with this year’s slogan ‘Dare to Dream’ why not make a few adaptations! With this year’s contest quickly approaching, it’s time to start planning your Eurovision parties. With the help of Eurovision Union, you can plan out the ultimate Eurovision party for you and your friends!
Over the last month, we’ve gathered some of the tastiest and most intriguing dishes from across the participating nations and we have put our aprons on to test out these recipes! We selected a diverse range of food, as well as both savoury and sweet dishes, so if you are hosting a Eurovision party this year, you can take inspiration from our cooking adventures across Europe and recreate these dishes for you and your friends!
Bruschetta (Italy)
Selecting a dish to represent Italy in this series was challenging in the sense that there are so many fantastic dishes that your party guests would love, however we chose to keep it simple since we want to keep the prep time short, so you have more time to focus on other, more important things!
Bruschetta is an antipasto dish from Italy which consists of toasted or grilled bread which is rubbed with garlic, then you are able to choose toppings that meet your tastes. Common toppings include tomato, vegetables, beans, cured meat or cheeses. Perhaps one of the most recognisable toppings is tomato, which is how we created our bruschetta.
The best way to serve this for guests is to have the sliced, toasted bread on a platter and have the topping mixture in a bowl, and you let your guests serve themselves.
Here is our recipe for Bruschetta:
Prep time: 15 mins
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients:
- 1 loaf of crusty bread, can be Pane di Casa, French stick or equivalent
- 4 ripened tomatoes
- ½ medium red onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- Balsamic vinegar
- Salt, to taste
Instructions:
- If the loaf of bread is unsliced, slice bread to around 2cm thick slices
- Dice the tomatoes and onion and place in a bowl. The amount of onion to add is dependent on your tastes
- Add salt to the tomato mixture to taste, then add a splash of balsamic vinegar to the mixture, stir and let sit at room temperature. If you prefer to use balsamic glaze, you can omit the vinegar and use the glaze to serve at the end
- Toast the bread until crunchy, then while hot lightly rub the garlic onto the bread
- To serve, add the tomato mixture onto the bread
Here is what we started with:
And here is our finished product (minus the bread being sliced)!
Beer List
Our resident beer expert has done research (and a whole lot of tasting) to come up with some of the must-try beers of the nation. For each nation there are three suggestions:
- The National Treasure – this is a beer that is recognisable and accessible to buy
- The Party Starter – this is a nicer alternative, but still fairly accessible to buy
- The Show Stopper – this is for the beer enthusiasts or those with a sense of adventure, but may not be as easy to purchase outside of that nation
Italy
The National Treasure – Peroni (Pale Lager – 4.7%)
The Party Starter – Birra Del Borgo Re Ale Extra (English IPA – 6.4%)
The Show Stopper – Baladin Xyauyù Birra Da Divano Riserva Teo Musso (Barleywine – 14.0%)
Listen to our Dare to Dream, Make a Meal playlist below: