Grilled bread with proscuitto and smoked mozzarella

Our water heater took a dive on Friday, right before the holiday weekend, and until the new one is installed Monday, doing dishes involves heating water for washing and rinsing. So I was happy to do even the appetizers on the grill to cut down on dishes.

Grilled bread with proscuitto
Adapted from "How Easy Is That" by Ina Garten. Another in a series of cookbooks filled with straightforward recipes designed to make entertaining not necessarily effortless, but effort well worth taking that doesn't make you too stressed to enjoy yourself. While her cookbooks are not just entertaining books per se, they certainly let you entertain thoughts of doing so.

Ingredients
6 slices of bread, such as a round Italian loaf or ciabatta type of bread
1 large garlic clove, halved
olive oil for drizzling
2 ounces thinly sliced proscuitto, torn into thin strips
2 ounces smoked fresh mozzarella, grated
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Method
Grill bread slices briefly over medium high heat until golden on one side. Remove from grill. (I find placing all the bread on a grilling pan helps keep the slices from trying to slip through the grate and also enables you to get them all off in one fell swoop so the last pieces don't have time to burn.)

Rub cut side of garlic over toasted side of bread. Drizzle with some olive oil. Top with proscuitto and cheese. Return bread to grill pan and cook briefly until cheese melts.

Drizzle with a bit more olive oil and sprinkle with parsley and pepper to taste.

If you can't find smoked mozzarella, you can substitute smoked gouda, but it will take slightly longer to melt.

Rating: Super simple and really hard to go wrong with that ingredient list, at least providing you don't burn the bread. We toasted the bread first, then cooked veggies and meat for dinner, then returned the appetizers to the grill to melt the cheese. That way we had hot appetizers to enjoy with a glass of wine while we gave the meat a chance to rest. Easy enough for any time you're grilling and you've got bread to use up, and tasty/looky enough for company.

Sadly, the dishes still await.