40 Party-Perfect Appetizer Recipes

Salt cod is mashed with fluffy potatoes to make these bite-size pan-fried cakes from Prince Edward Island. Get the recipe for Acadian Salt Cod Cakes »

Curry powder, raisins, and chutney pair nicely with cheddar cheese in this dressed-up tuna melt. Get the recipe for Tuna Melt Canapes »

Creamy cottage cheese combines with watercress, lemon, chive, and parsley to make a bright dip for raw vegetables or chips. Get the recipe for Creamy Watercress Dip »

A thin batter of salt cod, garlic, and onions is shallow-fried to make fine, crisp chips.

Evan Kleiman, the chef and owner of Angeli Caffe (see Family Style) in Los Angeles, gave us this recipe for Italian flat bread, which she tops with ‘nduja, a spreadable Italian cured meat. You can buy ‘nduja from the San Francisco-based pork store, Boccalone.

Carrots are roasted with rosemary and garlic until tender and slightly caramelized before being puréed with cannelini beans and coriander to make a vibrant, sweet, and earthy dip for raw veggies or pita chips.

The classic Argentine empanada is shaped like a half-moon, but the pattern of its seal differs to indicate the unique flavors inside. This recipe, with a braided crimp and a spicy beef filling, is baked rather than fried in Argentine style.

Calabrians in Italy sometimes add sliced cured sausage to this popular frittata on Easter, to celebrate the end of Lent.

Creamy and bright-tasting, lemon parmesan dip makes for an excellent accompaniment to a chip or crudité platter.

Roasted mushrooms are stuffed with a chorizo, onion, and cheese filling in a popular snack enjoyed at asados in Buenos Aires.

These little sandwiches have a big range of flavors, from the salty sardines to to the tangy flavors of tarragon and chive salsa verde.

These elegant appetizers come from Wolfgang Puck’s Los Angeles restaurant Spago. Laurie Ochoa wrote about the groundbreaking chef in “The King of LA,” part of our special Los Angeles issue (March 2010).

Fried Chicken Livers

Made with a simple egg batter, this feta-studded tart hails from the region of Epirus. Get the recipe for Feta Tart (Alevropita) »

A meze of stuffed grape leaves is served with a cucumber-yogurt sauce. Get the recipe for Stuffed Grape Leaves (Dolmades) »

A semolina crust encases a savory filling of ham, cheese, tomato, and eggs, perfect for a quick filling lunch.

Sour cream and fines herbes make a great sauce for cooling down a spicy snack like our fried cucumbers. Get the recipe for Fried Cucumbers with Sour Cream Dipping Sauce »

Based on a recipe from author Nancy Harmon Jenkins, this Cretan meze dish can be served hot or at room temperature.

In Greece, these flatbreads are traditionally cooked on a hearthstone set over hot coals (a cast-iron skillet on the stove works well, too) and served with tomato sauce or sautéed zucchini and feta.

The term saganaki refers to the skillet in which Greeks cook ingredients with cheese. In this appetizer, shrimp is topped with crumbled feta and broiled. Get the recipe for Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta (Garides Saganaki) »

Get the recipe for Hortopita »

These lemon-and-dill-flavored fish cakes are a favorite of northeastern Massachusetts.

Spicy and salty, with just the right amount of earthy sweetness, this homemade pizza makes a perfect appetizer or main course.

Traditionally, this recipe calls for Spanish calçots and ñora peppers. Scallions and ancho chiles are good substitutes. Get the recipe for Grilled Green Onions with Romesco »

These are the perfect accompaniment to any burger.

Lidia Bastianich, who owns New York’s Felidia and operates a restaurant, called Frico, with her son, grew up eating this irresistible fried-cheese snack in her hometown of Pula, Croatia (once part of Italy). Frico may be stuffed with a variety of fillings. When making this simple version, we added a little flour to help the frico to hold its shape. Get the recipe for Montasio Cheese Crisps »

This dish is based on the crab-stuffed jalapeños found on menus throughout southeast Texas. We found that chilling the chiles after stuffing them makes them easier to coat with bread crumbs and fry.

At the Red Cat in New York City, these are a popular choice on the bar menu.

Hot sauce and worcestershire sauce season the cheesy filling for this dish.

This recipe is borrowed from cookbook author Anne Willan, who developed it at her cooking school, La Varenne, in Burgundy, France. Willan calls them “burnt beans” in her book From My Chateau Kitchen (Clarkson Potter, 2000), noting that they are “a revelation to those familiar only with crisp beans”.

Foriana sauce makes a great alternative for the bread crumb stuffing often used on baked or broiled clams.

Patience is the key to making this flavorful pate. Before it is assembled, the ingredients should marinate overnight, and the finished pate should set for at least a day after it’s cooked so that the flavors meld.

It’s important to chill the patties for these sumptuous croquettes (from Atlanta’s Watershed) before frying them so that they hold together in the hot skillet. Get the recipe for Salmon Croquettes »

These banana leaf-wrapped tamales are covered with an outer layer of foil, which ensures that they stay closed when steamed. Alternatively, the foil may be omitted and the tamales tied with kitchen twine. (Parchment paper may be substituted for the banana leaves, as well.) Get the recipe for Guatemalan Tamales with Ancho Chile Sauce »

This dish is a favorite at Goode Company Seafood in Houston. It goes perfectly with fried tortilla chips and cold beer.

This meze is made in Macedonia with sweet Florina peppers, though Fresno or Anaheim chiles (the former being hotter than the latter) can be substituted. Get the recipe for Peppers Stuffed with Feta (Piperies Gemistes me Feta) »