Salami rollups with cream cheese and fresh herbs are easy to make and fun to serve! Try these cream cheese roll ups with Genoa salami in cornucopia for a fun finger food idea on your next meat and cheese tray. Make these salami appetizers once, and they will become a favorite party recipe.
How FUN are these salami rollups! Fun, tasty, bites of Heaven. And the fact that they look like little, wittle salami cornucopia makes them irresistible for any and all holiday festivities.
Which include, but are not limited to: Friday night gatherings, appetizers for Sunday dinner, football party food (YESSS), low carb snacks, and Thanksgiving. Definitely, Thanksgiving. My Salami Cornucopia recipes was born for Thanksgiving. And Christmas. And Easter.
Pretty much anytime you make a meat and cheese platter for noshing and entertaining.
Speaking of meat and cheese, I should mention that these Genoa salami cream cheese appetizers are low carb, keto friendly, and gluten-free. Simply by default.
What is salami?
- In general, salami is fermented, aged meat. Just like cheese or alcohol, microbiology done right gives us something delicious.
- The word salami is actually plural for the Italian work salame. Examples include Genoa salami, pepperoni, hard salami, Spanish chorizo, dry salami, and soppressata.
- Not all cured meats, however, are considered salame. For example, prosciutto, bacon, and pancetta, while cured and preserved, are not salami.
- Salami can be made with beef or pork, or sometimes veal, venison, or turkey. It varies on whether it is Italian, kosher, halal, eastern European, western European, or from wherever.
What is Genoa salami?
- Genoa salami specifically, is an Italian cold cut salami made with red wine and spices.
- Compared to other Italian varieties like hard salami or Italian soppressata, Genoa salami is pink and tangy because it is made with red wine rather than smoked.
- Genoa salami is soft and fatty making it perfect for these cream cheese roll ups because when we form the cornucopia shape, we can press the seam and it will hold.
- On its own, Genoa salami is delicious. I love it, just as is or with a mild cheese like fresh mozzarella.
Cornucopia Salami Rollups as a unique finger food idea
Seriously, when is the last time you saw an interesting cream cheese appetizer like these, either on their own or as part of a larger meat and cheese board? Yeah, they are so unique and every time I have made them over many years now, they have always been gobbled right up.
Now, this recipe is similar to cream cheese roll ups recipes in that we are using a creamy, dreamy herbed cream cheese and pairing it with delicious Genoa salami.
But the trick HERE is that we take our super thin and so yummy slices of Genoa salami from the deli, cut them in half, then roll them up in such a way so as to make our fun and unique shape.
Not gonna lie, it takes a couple tries to work out the system, but if you follow my photos and roll a couple Genoa salami cornucopia slowly, it will click.
Once you are there, you can zip zip zip right through rolling them all into perfect little adorable salami vessels to be stuffed with creamy delicious herbed cream cheese.
Next step: the cheese
This filling is made with softened cream cheese combined with parsley, chive, dill, and just a touch of lemon juice to brighten up our day. That is the heart of this recipe.
There is nothing like fresh herbs to completely transform something as humble as Philadelphia cream cheese. Although, if you look at the recipe card below, I use fresh parsley and chive, but dried dill.
Because dill is one herb I feel we can squeak by on using the dried pantry item.
Hint: if you do opt for dried herb vs fresh or vice versa, increase or reduce by a third. So, instead of using 3 Tablespoons fresh parsley, use 1 Tbsp dried. Or instead of 1-1/2 Tablespoons dried dill, use 3-1/2 Tbsp.
Yummy yummy, and the cream cheese and herb mixture comes together in a snap.
Tips to fill salami rollups
Once our salami roll-ups are made and cream cheese filling is finished, the next step is to get our awesome cream cheese with herbs INTO our salami cornucopia.
Without getting it everywhere else around us.
- Use a resealable bag to pipe the filling into the cornucopia.
- This hack works for so many recipes, but especially Salami Cornucopia and Deviled Eggs.
- Fill the bag with the cream cheese filling, snip a corner of the bag off with a knife or scissors, then squeeze the filling into these salami appetizers.
- An especially HELPFUL TRICK is to ensure the hole on the bag is smaller than the opening of the salami shape. This lets you press the salami around the opening and seal a bit, forcing the cream cheese into the salami cornucopia when you squeeze.
- The other key trick is to make sure the cream cheese is super soft so it will pipe for you into the salami rollups.
And this all – every bit of this recipe – can be made and assembled a day in advance. So when your party or holiday time arrives, this recipe is the last thing you have to worry about.
So that’s it kids! Delicious salami and cream cheese roll ups that will always be a hit no matter your gathering occasion (but especially Thanksgiving, let’s be honest).
Serve alone arranged on a plate, or serve as part of a big beautiful spread of other nibbles on a meat and cheese tray.
Decadent cream cheese, bright herbs, and rich Genoa salami rollups. This is a magical combination of flavors delivered in a fun little party bite.
More party recipe ideas
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Cornucopia Salami Rollups with Cream Cheese
Ingredients
- 25 thin slices of Genoa salami ~½ lb
- 2 (8 oz) pkgs cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese softened
- 3 Tbsp Italian flat-leaf parsley minced
- 3 Tbsp fresh chives minced
- 1½ Tbsp dried dill
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- pinch kosher salt
Instructions
For the Salami
- Stack the salami slices and cut the stack in half to make to stacks of half-moon shaped salami.
- Starting with a corner, roll each half piece of salami into a cone, pressing ends to seal.
- Refrigerate until ready to fill with the cream cheese mixture.
For the Herbed Cream Cheese Filling
- Combine the cream cheese, herbs, juice, and salt in a bowl.
For the Salami Cornucopia
- Spoon the herbed cream cheese filling into a large resealable bag.
- Snip a corner off the ziploc bag. Ensure the size of the hole is smaller than the opening of the salami cornucopia shapes.
- Pipe the cream cheese-herb mixture in to fill the salami cornucopias. Yield: 50 appetizers.
Notes
Nutrition
Calorie count is purely an estimate calculated using an online application to serve as a guide and not to be taken as accurate nutritional information. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.