Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Ted Allen's The Food You Want to Eat.

　　This is the easiest homemade cocktail snack you could ever imagine. Even better: it's probably the most delicious one in existence—salty, cheesy, and irresistible. It's basically a very cheesy cheese cracker; just a bit of shredded cheese baked with a tiny bit of flour and some herbs until it's good and crispy. (And it has the added advantage of making your house smell fantastic.) It's also a great tasting and beautiful addition to a salad, especially if you're brave enough to try this: the moment the crisps come out of the oven, while they're still hot and flexible, try rolling them around the handle of a wooden spoon to form a cylinder. They're also great looking left in their natural state of flat, irregular ovals.

　　

Ingredients

Makes 12 servings

　　1 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese, preferably Parmigiano-Reggiano

　　2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

　　1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary or thyme

　　1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

　　

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350°F.

　　

Step 2

In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients together. On a baking sheet coated lightly with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper, place tablespoonfuls of the mixture with a couple inches between each, and spread them out into ovals about four inches long and two wide. (You should have about 12 crisps.) Bake in the oven until they turn golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. If not shaping them around a spoon handle, cool crisps flat on a metal rack.

　　Reprinted with permission from The Food You Want to Eat

　　Clarkson Potter , © 2005