Baked Mortadella with gremolata

A great, easy canapé, inspired by my recent trip to Bologna

Baked Mordadella with gremolata

Following my visit to Bologna earlier this year, I spent a considerable amount of time eating the wonderful mortadella that’s made in Bologna. There are many producers in the region and I had the privilege of visiting the Gianni Negrini factory to see how it’s made. I always try and buy the best quality PGI product to ensure that it has the best flavour, texture and provenance. We so often find mortadella sold sliced, which makes it so easy for serving as part of a charcuterie platter, as an aperitivo or as an ingredient in may recipes.

I wanted to try and use mortadella in a different way, particularly cooked, which I thought would change the flavour and texture somewhat. I then discovered a large slice of mortadella, available from a supplier called Veroni, who sell some very nice Italian sausages here in the U.K., which worked fantastically well for this purpose. If you can’t get hold of this pre-cut slice, ask your local delicatessen to do this for you, and have it cut to around 7-8mm thick.

Baking mortadella in this way made such an easy and flavoursome canapé and I hope you will enjoy this as much as we all did.

Serves 6-8 as a canapé

Ingredients

1 slice of mordadella, around 7-8m thick

For the gremolata

15g parsley, chopped finely

Zest of around ½ unwaxed lemon

½ clove garlic, peeled and crushed or very finely grated

Method

Bake the mortadella first. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4. Put a sheet of foil over a large baking tray and set aside. Cut the mortadella into diamonds, by cutting at around 3cm intervals across the whole piece.

Place onto the prepared tray and bake for 10-12 minutes until slightly browned and a tiny bit crispy around the edges.

Whilst the mortadella is baking, make the gremolata. Simply mix the parsley, lemon and garlic together in a bowl.

Top the warm mortadella diamonds with about ¼ teaspoon of gremolata on each and serve straight away. This is best eaten quickly after being made and not in advance.