Sushi-Inspired Bologna Bites Are The Perfect Easy Appetizer For Your Next Party

Do you often wish you were skilled enough to make homemade sushi rolls for your dinner guests without using raw fish and specialty ingredients? Luckily, there's a fun way to prepare sushi-inspired appetizers without worrying about the crucial mistakes that keep you from perfect rice. Believe it or not, for a tasty American-style alternative, you can make look-alike sushi rolls with sliced bread, mortadella or bologna, cream cheese, and pistachio nuts. Not only are these versatile roll-ups a real crowd-pleaser, but they serve as a fun conversation starter as well.

To make your own platter of snackable rolls, flatten out pieces of crustless white bread with a rolling pin and add softened cream cheese and thin slices of mortadella. The difference between bologna and mortadella has everything to do with appearance and flavor. Unlike bologna which has a more even texture, mortadella has a zestier bite and includes pockets of visible fat.

If you'd like to use something more spreadable than cream cheese, feel free to swap it out for ricotta or mascarpone. Once your makeshift sushi has been assembled and refrigerated, add more softened cheese and crushed pistachio nuts to the top of each roll. When it comes to serving, for an extra special twist, serve these bite-sized rolls with chopsticks. Next to snack-worthy sushi rolls, mortadella and bologna can be transformed into many more crowd-pleasing hors d'oeuvres your dinner guests are sure to love.

For more styles of makeshift sushi rolls, feel free to change up the ingredients to include more color and flavor. Keep the lunch meat but instead of adding plain cream cheese or ricotta, use garlic and herb or vegetable cream cheese for an extra jolt of savory flavor. You can also include small amounts of veggies such as raw spinach or thin slices of bell pepper. For a briny kick, consider adding in some pepperoncini, capers, or chopped marinated artichoke hearts.

You can also skip the sushi rolls altogether and use bologna or mortadella to make different varieties of crostini. Make an Italian-inspired snack with toasted bread, creamy ricotta cheese, and zesty basil pesto or sliced olives. Alternatively, fry your lunch meat to make fried bologna bánh mì bites with julienned carrots, radish, and seasoned rice vinegar. Apart from crostini, use puff pastry and a mini muffin tin to make edible pastry cups that you can stuff with meat, cheese, and select vegetables or nuts.

Once you become accustomed to transforming these salty lunch meats into makeshift sushi rolls and other crowd-pleasing appetizers, go one step further and make bologna the star of your next stir-fry or home-cooked pizza. If you have a potluck coming up, you can even use a food processor to make a delicious, low-effort bologna salad.