From the Jacques Pépin spring menu, this versatile appetizer can also be made in a veggie version.
Ingredients
- 5 or 6 slices smoked salmon, about 5 ounces
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- About 25 small round slices pumpernickel or other dark bread, or rice or Ritz crackers
Instructions
Place the cream cheese on a 12-inch square of plastic wrap. Cover it with another 12-inch square and, with your hands, spread the cream cheese out to form a square approximately 8 by 8 inches. Peel off and discard the top piece of plastic wrap and arrange the salmon on the cheese. Sprinkle the pepper evenly over the salmon. Lifting up the plastic wrap, roll the cream cheese up tightly, enclosing the salmon (don’t let the plastic get rolled up inside). Use the plastic wrap to help tighten the roll; it should measure about 9 inches long by 1½ inches. Seal it well in the plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 1½ to 2 hours.
Remove the partially frozen roll from the plastic wrap and, using a sharp thin-bladed knife, cut it into ½-inch-wide slices. Place the slices on the bread rounds. Work quickly while the cream cheese is still cold, so it doesn’t stick too much to your fingers or to the knife. If it gets sticky, return it to the freezer for a few minutes to harden.
Arrange the hors d’oeuvres on a large serving plate and serve cold.
Rolling the cream cheese out between sheets of plastic wrap eliminates a messy cleanup chore.
VEGETABLE–CREAM CHEESE ROLL-UPS
In place of the salmon, use 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced lengthwise into thin strips with a vegetable peeler, 8 sun-dried tomatoes from the Mushroom, Tomato, and Nut Mix (page 19), and 12 mint leaves. Arrange the vegetables and mint over the cheese (omit the pepper) and roll up as described. If you don’t have the tomato mix on hand, you can use sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil or reconstituted dehydrated tomatoes. Try other vegetables as well, for variations in flavor and color.
Excerpted from Jacques Pépin Quick & Simple © 2020 by Jacques Pépin. Photography © 2020 by Tom Hopkins. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
About this recipe
Home chef Robbie Raffish shares what she learned by making this recipe:
This recipe will now be a standard for family events. I made the vegetable cream cheese by adding a carrot, sundried tomatoes and mint leaves but I used a fewer leaves than recommended to titrate the taste. We used Schar Entertainment Crackers for those who are gluten free. I had never frozen cream cheese and using his recommended technique did the trick.
