Edward Hayden's New Year’s Eve Antipasto Party

Chef Edward Hayden is just the man to bring the fun to your New Year's Eve table. He has put together two fantastic recipes for your festive antipasto platter. A tempting presentation of cheese and cured meats is the ideal dish to have on standby for an evening of grazing, and Edward's fresh basil pesto and mouth-watering red onion marmalade adds that extra spark. Aside from noshing, the enjoyable part of assembling your platter is to be adventurous as you like in both composition and creation. Serve with other favourites like pita and focaccia, hummus, black olive tapenade, pâté, artichoke hearts, etc. And most importantly, you can be equally adventurous when pairing your antipasto platters with wine. We put together a New Year's Eve case perfectly curated to accompany your party fare from warm reds, crisp whites and of course, bubbles for midnight.

Basil Pesto

1 large handful fresh basil leaves 1 dessertspoon grated parmesan cheese 1 dessertspoon pine nuts-toasted or untoasted 2 cloves of garlic 100-150ml olive oil 1 teaspoon of lemon juice Place all ingredients into a food processor and blitz. I normally just add 100ml olive oil and then adjust the consistency as desired with the remaining oil. Store the pesto in a sterilized jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks

Red Onion Marmalade

4 medium red onions-peeled and thinly sliced. 3oz/75g brown sugar 3 tablespoons red wine 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 1 teaspoon of oil In a large pot, place the onions and the oil over a high heat. Continue to stir the contents to move the onions around and prevent them from sticking. As the onions begin to colour and soften, (after about 3 minutes) add in the brown sugar and continue to stir. The sugar will begin to soften and will coat all of the onions. Allow the softened sugar to come to the boil gently. Next, add in the red wine and the red wine vinegar. Allow the mixture to come to the boil and then simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until all of the liquid has evaporated, off. Make sure that you stir it occasionally to prevent anything sticking to the base of the pot. Transfer to clean sterilized jars and store in the fridge for up to 4 weeks. To Serve: Roasted Vegetables (Mixed peppers-cut into chunks and roasted for 20 minutes) Cured Meats (Parma Ham, Salami, Chorizo, Panchetta, etc.) Cheese Selection (Goats, Chedar, Brie, Blue etc.) Black Olives Walnuts Pickled Beetroot Crisp Breads Fresh herbs

Chef Edward Hayden

Edward Hayden is a chef and food writer and is very well-known to audiences from his weekly cookery slots on Virgin Media’s Ireland AM. He also presents a weekly radio show, ‘The Saturday Show with Edward Hayden’, every Saturday morning on KCLR96fm. Edward works as a culinary lecturer in Waterford Institute of Technology and is the chef and proprietor of The Edward Hayden School of Cookery’ in his native Graignamanagh. Edward has published three cookery books ‘Edward Entertains’, ‘Food to Love’ with O’Brien Press (which was awarded the prestigious Kerry Food Book of the Year) and ‘Food for Friends’ with O’Brien Press. He is currently putting the finishing touches to his next book.