Goat Cheese and Grape Crostini

Looking through my recipe binder, I found a picture of crostini topped with grapes. There was no recipe with it, but I couldn't resist giving them a try. I made a big batch for appetizers at a dinner party and they had disappeared by the time dinner was ready.

My favorite part about this recipe is the combination of hot and cold. Your teeth sink into a warm piece of toasted bread topped with soft melted cheese, but the grapes are still cool with a different kind of crunch. I also like the balance of sweet and salty. If you're not a fan of goat cheese, you might consider making these with another spreadable soft cheese, like brie. Or if you are feeling adventurous, you could try one of the soft cheeses on this list.


Ingredients

• most of 1 baguette or French loaf, sliced into rounds
• 8 oz. soft goat cheese
• freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
• red seedless grapes, halved

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Smear each baguette round with goat cheese, then place on large cookie sheet with sides. 
3. Sprinkle crostini with pepper, then parsley.
4. Bake at 425 degrees for 8-12 minutes, until goat cheese is softened and bread is barely toasted.
5. Remove from oven. As crostini are cooling, top each round with a few grape halves.

Marinated White Beans with Tomatoes

While preparing for a recent picnic, I decided to mix up some marinated beans. After seeing this recipe on Budget Bytes, I had been thinking about a cold bean mixture to enjoy during the hot days of summer. I adapted her idea with a few tips from Jamie Oliver's salad video to create this great snack, crostini topper, or side dish.

Ingredients for Dressing

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp high quality mustard (ex: stone ground or Dijon mustard)
• small handful fresh flat leaf parsley, minced
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Other Ingredients

• one or two 15 oz. cans Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained (for a dish with lighter dressing, use 2 cans of beans)
• 1 small vine ripe tomato, diced

Directions

1. In a small lidded container, combine dressing ingredients and shake well.
2. In a separate bowl or container, combine beans and tomatoes. Pour dressing over top and stir until coated. 
3. Let mixture sit at least fifteen minutes before serving atop toasted baguette slices or as a side dish.

Peach Mango Crostini

The other day, Dan the Man and I headed to the store for inspiration. We decided to purchase whatever produce looked good to us and would figure out something to make with it.

The result: a snack dinner involving fresh fruit and cheese. It was too hot to eat a heavy meal so I was pleased with the outcome: a cute topping (each ingredient was chopped into small cubes) and a bright taste that I really enjoyed as a summer snack.

You can refer back to my post on Brie, Pear, and Brown Sugar Crostini for a clarification on bruschetta vs. crostini if you'd like a refresher on your Italian vocabulary.

Any fresh bread will work for this. My favorite for crostini is baguette, but good French bread will do (that's what you see in the picture), as will the wider Italian bread in a pinch.

Ingredients

• 1 peach, chopped into small pieces
• 1 mango, chopped into small piece
• 5-7 fresh mint leaves, chopped finely (fresh basil would also work)
• 8 oz. ball of fresh mozzarella, chopped into small pieces
• loaf of baguette, French, or Italian bread, sliced into desired size pieces

Directions

1. Mix peach, mango, mint, and mozzarella in a bowl. Let sit for at least 5 minutes to allow flavors to meld.
2. Spoon onto bread slices.
3. Optional: Place crostini on cookie sheet and broil for 1-2 minutes, just enough for mozzarella to melt.

Comments

The peach flavor stood out more than the mango did; you could add another mango if you wanted it to be the dominant flavor. I would also recommend cutting each bread slice in half if you want the crostini to literally be bite-sized, which would make them a little neater to eat.

We ate this primarily as is (fresh), but also tried a few warmed and the mozzarella was delicious. The heat also made the peach flavor sweeter. I'd definitely recommend these warmed!

Brie, Pear, and Brown Sugar Crostini

My roommate from college and I were obsessed with crostini - little snacks with a baguette slice as the base. The only requirements for toppings were taste related - something sweet paired with something salty. We called them "towers" and maybe someday we'll have a cookbook of our tower inventions! For Valentine's Day we had two different trays of crostini as appetizers and this recipe is one of them. It is comprised of two sweets (the pear and brown sugar) and one salty (a slice of soft Brie cheese).

Bruschetta vs. crostini?
Some people interchange the two but it is important to know the difference, especially if you are searching the internet for a certain recipe. Bruschetta is a very specific type of crostini (just as a square is a type of parallelogram - sorry, I'm a math geek!) that is comprised of a tiny toast topped with olive oil, salt, pepper, and diced tomatoes and onions. This word is often misused to describe what is actually crostini. The word crostini is Italian for tiny toasts, so the baguette could have any topping and still be a crostini.

Ingredients (per cookie sheet)

• 1/2 loaf baguette or other long, thin bread, sliced at a diagonal
  
• 1 wedge Brie cheese, cut into small thin chunks
  
• 1 pear, sliced very thinly
• brown sugar
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
   
2. Place bread slices on a cookie sheet with sides. (The bread can be touching.)
3. Top each slice with a piece of Brie, then a pear, and finally a sprinkle of brown sugar.
4. Bake until brown sugar melts, about 5-7 minutes but sometimes longer.
   

Comments
These were heavenly and disappeared pretty fast! Sometimes they are good as a light dinner if you're feeling like snack-type foods for your meal.

If you dislike brie (I'm not sure it's possible but I've heard that some people feel this way), try finding another soft cheese that is salty but still has a pretty mellow flavor.