Valentine's Charcuterie board

Wooden platter with meat and cheese shaped as roses. Some green sage leaves are used as decoration.

Perfect for parties or a romantic meal, this festive Valentine's charcuterie board combines hearts and roses of meats and cheese for a fun and creative appetizer or small meal.

Course Appetizers

Cuisine American, Global

Keyword valentine's day

Special Diet Carnivore Diet, Dairy free Recipes, Gluten free Recipes, Keto, Low Carb, Paleo

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 10

Total Time 25

Servings servings

Calories 402kcal

Author Tracy Ariza, DDS

Ingredients

For bacon roses

6 Strips bacon (For a dozen small roses)

For strawberry hearts

2 strawberries

For meat flowers

15 slices salami
15 slices pepperoni

For cheese shapes

100 g provolone

Instructions

Make bacon roses

Preheat oven to 375ºF/190ºC
Take each strip of bacon, and cut it in half lengthwise.
Roll the bacon from on end to the other. Leave them slightly loose and let the edges fold over upon themselves for a more realistic look. Use the edge with the fat for the top of the rose.
Place the bacon roses into small muffin tins or silicone ice cube trays to help them hold their shape as you bake them. I used silicone cube-shaped ice cube trays. If using tiny muffin tins for bacon roses, consider adding aluminum foil or toothpicks to help them hold their shape.
Bake the bacon roses in the oven or air fryer until brown and crisp. If the roses are brown on top but uncooked on the bottom, flip them over to cook the bottoms for a few minutes.

Make strawberry hearts

Cut the stems off the strawberries.
Cut a small v-shaped wedge out of the top center part of the strawberries to make them look like hearts. Cut the shaped strawberries in slices to form several thinner strawberry hearts from each strawberry.

Make the cured meat flowers

Layer slices of salami and pepperoni in overlapping circles and then roll them up to create a rose shape. You can alternatively use a shot glass to help form the rose.

Shape the cheese

Make cheese shapes by melting the cheese and spooning it into candy molds or by cutting it with cookie cutters.

Assemble charcuterie board

Find a wooden board, slate plate, or marble slab that you can use as the base. Choose one that won't be too big for the ingredients you want to use.
While the roses are baking, assemble the other meats and cheeses. Use a variety of cheese wedges and slices. Slices of cheese can be nestled between slices of meat.
Use kitchen shears to cut leftover sliced meats into hearts or other shapes, as desired.
Once you've arranged the meats and cheeses in a visually appealing way, place the fruits and extras around them to fill up any empty spaces.
Add your bacon roses. To get them to stay in place, use your kitchen shears to cut off the bottom, leaving the underside flat.

Video

Notes

Nutritional information is calculated using the above quantities for a charcuterie board shared by 4 people.

The bacon roses can be premade, and the strawberries can be washed, dried, and carved ahead of time. They can then be sliced and placed on the charcuterie board at the time of serving.

Nutrition