The Creative Tip For Using Up Those Leftover Charcuterie Ingredients

Charcuterie isn't just a tasty snack, it's a great way to put together an easy lunch or feed a small crowd, but no matter how you prepare it, you're going to need some tips on how to use up leftovers. Being a collection of lots of small bites, building a charcuterie board usually means chipping away at larger hunks of cheese or meat, leaving you with a lot of spare odds and ends after the eating is done. You're not going to be reattaching that slice of parmesan to the rest, or returning six olives to the grocery store, so it likely ends up sitting in a small pile in your fridge, going to waste. Well, it turns out there is a great use for those leftovers, and it comes in the form everybody already loves. You can turn that charcuterie into a pizza.

This is about as elegant a solution as you can get for leftovers. The types of food you find on charcuterie boards, prosciutto — briny bites like pickles and peppers, and cheese — are all popular pizza toppings to begin with, and you need just a small amount to make a great pizza. Being already sliced and prepped for the board, all you need is some pizza dough and sauce to sprinkle it on and you'll have a delicious meal with the bonus of cutting down on waste.

Pizza and charcuterie both lend themselves to mixing and matching. You can find a great balance of toppings for a pizza — a little fatty, acidic, and salty — on almost any charcuterie board. The rich meaty flavors of salami find a great counterpart in any bright, salty accompaniments like olives, marinated artichokes, or pickled peppers. Even just a mix of sides like pickles and roasted red peppers will be perfect with the rich mozzarella on your pizza.

While you might not have enough cheese to cover a pizza, cheeses can easily be mixed into a blend with shredded mozzarella, or dolloped over top if they are soft cheeses like goat and brie. Even some of the less traditional pizza toppings can work. You can mellow out a pizza with spicy meat or peppers from your board with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar or honey. And walnuts, almonds, or pistachios can be ground up with olive oil and herbs to make a pesto-style spread in place of tomato sauce.

Just make sure you are saving some of those toppings for after the pizza has cooked. While meatier toppings like olives and most meats can be cooked, thinly sliced cured meats like prosciutto should go on pizza after cooking, as should lighter veggies like pickles where you want to preserve the bright flavor. But that small concern aside, these will be some of the easiest tastiest leftover meals you'll ever make.