So here we are with my first entry into the flavour pool.

A word of warning - I have to admit that I'm not putting a ton o'effort into the first 4 'flavours' in the challenge. This lack of effort has nothing to do with me not liking apples, plums, mushrooms, or duck because I do. Instead it has more to do with the fact that we were madly finishing up work all over the place and in the midst of a close election campaign and trying to get ready to jet to Italy and boom - design four recipes to blog ahead so I don't become known as the Favour Blogger who is always 5 cycles behind the rest of the crew.

By all rights I should be in Napoli right now.

Buon giorno.

Where is the nearest gelato shop?

For this recipe I envisioned a flatbread that combined sweet plums, salty prosciutto, a wee bit of tang from goat cheese, and some fresh herbs all on a bite of crispy bread. Normally I might have made my own flatbread - if you have your favourite recipe for this I encourage you to do so. However, being raced beyond sanity for time I went lazy and used a store-bought baguette.

Plum Flatbread

3 black plums, sliced lengthwise
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 baguette sliced in half lengthwise
5 thin slices of prosciutto, roughly chopped
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
1 tsp chopped fresh mint
Balsamic glaze (optional but REALLY good)

Mix the plums, cardamom, and lemon juice in a bowl. Let sit for 30 minutes to allow flavours to blend.

Turn on the oven broiler element.

Arrange the macerated plums on the cut baguette. Drizzle any of the juices in the bowl over the plums.

Sprinkle with the chopped prosciutto, ensuring that it is evenly distributed.

Sprinkle with the crumbled goat cheese, ensuring that it is evenly distributed.

Place the prepared flatbread on a cookie sheet and put it under the broiler. Broil until the prosciutto is crispy and the cheese starting to bubble. Since all broilers vary in temperature and rack placements you should watch this carefully. For us it took about 5 minutes. Don't watch and you can go from delicious toasted bread and crispy prosciutto to charred mess you'd not even feed the 'guy in the office who took a bite of your sandwich and then put it back in the refrigerator' in seconds.

Allow the cooked flatbread to cool slightly. Sprinkle with the chopped mint.

If you have balsamic glaze (we have bottles we bring home from Italy and I know stores here carry it) you can gild the lily be drizzling some over the finished flatbread. You can make your own glaze by boiling down some balsamic vinegar until it thickens considerably. Take my advice - buy the prepared glaze if you can find it. :-)

These were quite good. Surprisingly good for a self-confessed lazy recipe. Yes, they'd have been even better with a homemade base but I suspect I'd be in a locked ward right now and NOT in Italy so there you have it.