You know, there are things that you see on Food TV or in restaurants and you think “Wow, that must be hard to do?”

Lots of those things are really hard (like, have you ever wondered who makes filo pastry from scratch ?  Somebody does.  It’s not me).

But some of them just look hard…but are actually really easy.

I wanted to do a salad as part of an eight course meal so I didn’t want it to be big – but I wanted it to have an impact.

So, instead of just plopping a sorry looking spoonful of salad onto a plate, I thought I would put it into a parmesan cup….this is one of those easy things!

If you want to give it a shot, just grate some fresh parm from a good chuck you buy at the store (it doesn’t work great if you use the pre-grated kind) and just plop about 2 tablespoons onto a baking sheet (see top picture).  Slide it into a pre-heated 350 oven and bake for about 7-8 minutes (keep watch over it …it’s ready when the edges turn brown).

Take it out of the oven and let it rest for about 45 seconds (not any longer!!).  Grab a large spatula and pick up each circle and lay it over  the back of a muffin tin.

Brilliant alert: I used my cupcake holder…which, btw, I’ve never used for cupcakes!!

Whatever you use to form your cups, just leave them there for about an hour and presto, you have magical, edible cups!

I served mine with salad, a pancetta crisp and a crostini on top.

Yummly…