crostini Archives - Proud Italian Cook

White Bean Crostini with Frizzled Sage

October 9, 2019 by Marie 4 Comments

Fall has arrived, the temperatures are cooler and holiday entertaining is around the corner. Sometimes you need a little something for lunch or dinner or a nice hearty appetizer to serve your guests, these white bean crostini with frizzled sage will fit the bill!

Crunchy and warm crostini spread with smashed cannellini beans that have been infused with lots of flavor and topped off with a crispy sage leaf.

It’s warm and comforting, quick and easy to make and looks very impressive.

You need to frizzle your sage in olive oil, just getting it to the point where it starts to crisp up and doesn’t turn dark brown. The sage infused oil is then the base for starting your beans.

Half of the beans will be smashed and the other half left whole. Canned beans are used in this recipe but you certainly can cook up your own pot of beans if you so desire but remember this is a fuss free recipe, one that you can whip up in no time.

So my advice would be to stock up your pantry with some canned cannellini beans so you’re ready when you need a spur of the moment topping for crostini.

Crispy charred bread that I toasted under the broiler are the perfect crunchy base for these creamy beans, which taste at their peek when warm, then each crostini is crowned with a frizzled sage leaf.

This is the time to take out your best quality olive oil and give each one a good drizzle to finish them off. How is it that something so simple can taste so good?

You can eat them on their own with your favorite beverage, or place them onto a charcuterie platter with some other goodies.

Deliciously simple, you’ll be a hit and they’ll all be devoured!

Follow me on Instagram to see what else I’m cooking up during the week.

5.0 from 1 reviews

White Bean Crostini with Frizzled Sage

Author: Marie

Ingredients

2 cans of cannellini beans, drained
2 cloves of garlic, smashed into a paste
⅓ cup of onion finely minced
a pinch or so of red pepper flakes according to your liking
salt and pepper to taste
every day olive oil
a good quality olive oil for finishing
horizontally sliced baguette, drizzled with olive oil and put under the broiler to get toasted on each side, it goes fast so keep checking and don't walk away
enough fresh sage leaves to top each crostini and garnish the pot of beans

Instructions

Toast your bread first as stated above and set aside.
Depending on how many crostini your're making, first fry up a bunch of fresh sage in your everyday olive oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan.
You want the sage to be frizzled and not dark golden brown, set aside on paper towels.
In same pan add the garlic and onion and saute until soft.
Add in the drained beans, season with red pepper, salt and pepper.
Cook beans on medium low, turning constantly until all the flavors meld together.
Gently smash half on the beans right in the pan and leave the rest whole.
Toss in some whole sage leaves for garnish right in the pan.
Drizzle with good quality olive oil and taste for seasoning, it should be heavily seasoned.
Spread warm beans onto toasted bread, garnish with one sage leaf, and give it a good drizzle with the quality olive oil.
Enjoy!

4 Comments Filed Under: Appetizers, Beans, Fall Tagged: cannellini beans, crostini, fall food, fried sage, white beans

Whipped Ricotta with Slow Roasted Tomatoes

September 10, 2015 by Marie 19 Comments

Before all the beautiful summer tomatoes quickly disappear, promise me you’ll make this! This is like the grand finale of tomato season for me, because soon we’ll be into the cooler weather, fall type foods, but I guarantee come mid January you’ll be dreaming about this like I do.

This combination was meant to be together, like yin and yang, the perfect match.

Creamy, light, fluffy and decadent, whipped ricotta slathered onto extremely crunchy bread and topped with the most intensely flavored slow roasted tomatoes, I can barely talk, it’s that good!

Ingredients: Great tomatoes, the best bread you can find and good quality fresh ricotta.

Normally when I roast tomatoes I put the oven on 400, toss them with olive oil and quick roast for around 15 or 20 mins, but this is a different process, there’s nothing quick about it, you’ll have to give up your oven for at least four hours.

The slow process is exactly why they taste so darn special, sort of like the difference between quick frying onions verses the slow process of caramelizing them, there’s no comparison in taste.

You want to get them to the point where most of the moisture is gone but yet they’re still a little moist and limp.

Now lets talk about the whipped ricotta, I like to call it Italian Hummus, you can dip it, spread it, whatever you like. I’ve been obsessing about it ever since I tasted droplets of it on top of a pizza this summer.

So simple to make, just place some good quality ricotta into a food processor or a mixer and blend it until it has a smooth and creamy almost fluffy consistency with no lumps at all, you might need a few drops of cream or half and half to help smooth it out. You can then finish it off by folding in some fresh herbs of your choice like, oregano, chives, basil, maybe a little parmesan cheese if you want, salt and pepper of course, and finally a nice drizzle of olive oil on top, just like hummus. I used chives and basil in mine but it’s a blank canvas so make it your own.

Pile it on some of the best bread you can find, toasted of course, then top it with those luscious tomatoes.

Honestly, you can make a meal out of this, it’s that good.

One bite and you’ll be hooked!

5.0 from 5 reviews

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Make this, it will change your life!

Author: Marie

Ingredients

great tomatoes
fresh thyme
garlic infused olive oil
salt and pepper

Instructions

Heat oven to 250 degrees.
Slice tomatoes about a ¼ " thick, if cut too thin they will turn out like chips.
Place slices on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Brush each slice just on the top with olive oil that has been infused with one small crushed garlic clove.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper but be easy on the salt because it intensify's as it roasts and you don't want it to taste overly salty.
Spread fresh thyme leaves all over.
Place in oven and roast at that temp for 1 hour then reduce oven temp to 200 until tomatoes lose most of their moisture but are not completely dried out.
Mine took a total of 4 hours.
Store them single layer in an airtight container, in the fridge.

19 Comments Filed Under: Appetizers, Summer Tagged: crostini, ricotta, roasted tomatoes, slow roasted tomatoes, whipped ricotta

Summer Crostini with Garden Pestos

June 26, 2014 by Marie 14 Comments

Now that summer is in full swing there’s usually always something to harvest daily from our veggie garden, some days it’s just a few stalks of kale or swiss chard, a tiny bunch of broccolini or a few cherry tomatoes. Nothing yet to make a huge meal from, but perfect for making small bites!

One thing I do have an abundance of right now are fresh herbs, the rain just exploded their growth. Basil, mint, thyme, rosemary, parsley, sage and tarragon are growing all over the place and I feel so guilty if I don’t use them all!

I was recently gifted with some garlic scapes, (thanks Julie and Ken) so I thought making a few different pestos would be the perfect way to start using up all my bounty.

So I made my trusty Basil Pesto, and tried out two new ones, Pea and Mint, and Garlic Scape and Kale Pesto. If you use your food processor you can whip these up in no time! Pesto’s are so versatile you can put them in and on just about anything, pastas, grilled meats, soups, pizzas, veggies, fish, omelettes, I could go on and on, I even throw some in when making egg salad!

Another fun way to eat up your pestos is to slather some on top of crostini. Crostini are thin slices of toasted bread drizzled with olive oil and garnished with endless possibilities. By adding in your favorite charcuterie, grilled veggies, various cheeses, good olives, fresh fruit, etc. you can create an elegant antipasti, lunch or dinner, just don’t forget the wine!

I was in love with this recipe the minute I saw it, a crusty piece of bread topped with pea and mint pesto, creamy Burrata cheese and a slice of prosciutto, this is to die for, it’s a meal in itself! The only thing I changed up in the recipe was the cheese, I used grated parmesan for mine.

If you don’t want to use meat try some thinly sliced grilled zucchini to replace it. Again, I repeat, to die for!

Here are some other ideas for crostini using up whatever you might have growing in your gardens.

Roasted tomato slices topped with basil pesto***** Mascarpone cheese topped with garlic scape and kale pesto, roasted mushrooms, leeks and thyme*****

Ricotta topped with garlic and red pepper sauteed broccolini***** Goat cheese topped with garlic and red pepper sauteed swiss chard*****

It’s all good! Small bites, big flavor, simple and sophisticated!

Garlic Scape and Kale Pesto

Ingredients

2 garlic scapes cut in chunks
2 cups kale, stems removed
⅓ cup toasted almonds or walnuts
⅓ cup grated romano cheese
pinch of red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Instructions

In a food processor add garlic scapes, nuts and kale, pulsing until chopped up fine.
Add in cheese, red pepper and salt and pepper, process until incorporated.
While machine is running, pour olive oil down the tube until you get a loose consistency.
Cover and refrigerate.