Do you know what a butter board is? It’s a brilliant idea: a butter platter, well-seasoned to share with friends during aperitifs or as an appetizer. Mine is pink because I used beetroot butter, and I enriched it with fresh mango, arugula, Taggiasca olives, and anchovies. Then I topped it with a romantic and flavorful sprinkle of flower petals and saffron threads. The butter platter should be served with crackers and breadsticks, with Genoese focaccia or good bread, and accompanied by a glass of good wine or excellent beer.
My butter board is very trendy. In fact, I decided to mix butter with a small amount of pureed beetroot to achieve the 2023 Pantone color: magenta, Pantone 18-1750! One of the most beautiful colors offered by nature, lively and romantic at the same time. Moreover, beetroot butter lends itself to many flavor and color combinations, and this small percentage of beetroot makes the butter platter fresher and lighter.
Continuing on, I will reveal the secrets of this beautiful colored butter, tricks, and pairing advice.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: No cooking
- Cuisine: International
- Seasonality: All seasons
What ingredients are needed for the beetroot butter board?
I have already published the method to obtain beetroot butter:
⁕ Beetroot Butter
Below you will find only the quantities and other ingredients
- 6 oz beetroot butter (well whipped)
- 1 cup arugula (fresh and stemless)
- 1/4 cup mango (diced)
- 1/3 cup red beetroots, cooked, boiled (diced)
- 10 Taggiasca olives (pitted and drained)
- 10 anchovies in oil (plump and well-drained)
Tools
To puree the beetroot and mix it with the butter, a good blender is needed. Indeed, if the blender has a good motor, it works quickly and doesn’t heat up.
- 1 Immersion Blender
How to prepare a beetroot butter board
The first recommendation is to use high-quality butter, preferably artisanal and organic. I buy bulk butter from Alimentari Arbanella, an organic store in the historic center of Genoa, at Via Canneto il Curto, 16. This butter is so good that I don’t want to buy any other.
The second recommendation is to puree the beetroot well, first on its own and then with the butter. In fact, the small fragments of beetroot that might remain whole, and which, in other preparations, would be an added value, in this case, would ruin the harmony of the whole.
You can find all the instructions here.
Preparing the butter board is simple and fun. If the colors of the ingredients are right and the combination is harmonious, we will effortlessly achieve an astonishing result. Moreover, there is no limit to imagination, in pairing butter (also perfect on its own) with sweet and savory ingredients to surprise our guests.
In our case: we spread the magenta butter – the Pantone color of the year, I remind you – on a small board. We can arrange it in soft waves, as I did, or simply spread it more rustically. The bulk of the work is done. Now, let’s arrange the other ingredients gracefully. Clean the mango and cut it into cubes, and do the same for the beetroot, and scatter them on the butter. Add some arugula leaves and a handful of well-drained olives. At the four corners of the board, add the anchovies in oil, wrapped in small turbans, so those who like them can serve themselves. To complete the work, I added a colorful and romantic sprinkle: a mix of flower petals (dried, given the season) and saffron pistils: beautiful and fragrant.
The Queen’s Tips
We all know that butter can be flavored in a thousand ways, but it’s also delicious on its own, so the only fundamental thing for the success of this recipe is the quality of the butter. The rest is just an arrangement, as we all know how good bread and butter is, with or without jam. Not to mention, bread and butter with anchovies, bread and butter with salmon, and much more.
So the board will be delicious with salmon, avocado, salami, prosciutto, and so on. It can be served with light and tasty crackers, of which I leave some recipes:
⁕ Chickpea Crackers – Sheets with Legume Flour without Yeast
⁕ Crackers with Venere Rice Flour and White Sesame
It will be beautiful by matching the colors well and decorating, in spring and summer, with fresh flower petals. The butter board is also good sweet, paired with any type of jam or honey, with cookies and dried fruit. For example:
⁕ Pear Jam with Violet
⁕ Organic Orange Jam – Recipe with Less Sugar
⁕ Vin Santo Shortbread Cookies
⁕ Double Chocolate Shortcrust – Cheerful and Colorful Cookies
If you want to pair a good glass of wine, then turn to my friend Alessandra Pocaterra, she is a great wine expert and will certainly be able to advise you.
Magenta, Pantone color of 2023
If you liked the idea of cooking in palette with this year’s color, read these recipes, they are all perfect:
⁕ Pink Beetroot Sandwich – With Agretti and Edible Flowers
⁕ Beetroot and Mango Tartare – Vegan Appetizer
⁕ Beetroot and Feta Towers with Walnuts and Hot Honey
⁕ Soft Beetroot Buns – Pink Burger Buns
⁕ Pink Cheeseburger – Gourmet Sandwich with Organic Swiss
And there are also sweets:
⁕ Vegan Beetroot and Lemon Cookies
⁕ Marbled Beetroot and Pistachio Cake
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Returning to the HOME, you will find other recipes, sweet and savory, for holidays or every day, and many vegetarian dishes. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram: you will find quick recipes, many useful tips, and you will never be without ideas for dinner again. Leave your comments, there’s a space just for you here, after the notes. I will be happy to respond.
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