When it comes to Halloween treats, recipes, and drinks, there are the stand-bys. Most of us have made, or ingested, a drink that looks like blood or a cupcake with a spider on it around October 31. But if you want to be different this year, if you want to both astound and gross people out, you need to whip up this Eyeball Caprese appetizer for your Halloween party. It couldn't be easier, and hey, who doesn't like caprese?!
Eyeball Caprese adapted from Evil Mad Scientist
Ingredients:
- Balls of fresh mozzarella cheese (ideally, mozzarella di bufala)
- Green olives
- Black olives
- Tomatoes
- Fresh basil leaves
Instructions:
1. Using a paring knife, cut a thin, clean, round slice from the tip or side of one of the green olives. This is a shallow cut, so it doesn’t matter if the olive has a pit or not, but do try to make a nearly-circular slice.
2. And now use the end of a plastic drinking straw to cut a hole through the center of your olive disk. This is the hole for the "pupil". To do this, push down on the straw with a slight twisting motion. It will slice out a neat cylindrical core, which you may need to remove with a toothpick or similar instrument.
3. For the pupil use the black olive. Use the same straw to poke a hole in a black olive to get a little plug of material that will exactly fit in the pupil hole of your green olive disk. Depending on your relative olive thickness, you may need to trim the back of the black plug as necessary.
4. Stick your olive irises to your mozzarella balls. Assuming that the surfaces are wet, they should stay in place by themselves. If your cheese is particularly curvy, you might find it helpful to cut a small flat surface for them to attach to.
5. Serve your eyeballs over tomatoes and basil. Drizzle with olive oil, if you'd like.
Image via Windell Oskay/Flickr
