Make your own crostini night = genius idea. I’ve come to the conclusion that I love anything involving making your own kind of well anything. If its pizza, tacos, burgers or in this case crostini’s, you just cannot go wrong when feeding a crowd of people with various taste buds. This meal fed one picky eater, one even bigger picky eater and a vegan. If that’s not an accomplishment than I don’t know what is! These also make great apps…
I wish I had better photo taking skills but usually my hunger and lack of patience doesn’t really help the act of taking “pretty” food pictures. So you are just going to have to live with my average photography skills, hopefully for now. In the main picture I created three crostini’s:
1. Goat Cheese, Dry Spinach, Sauteed Dried Figs with Balsamic and Garlic & a Little Homemade Bruschetta Mix
2. Pea and Mint Puree with Parmesan Cheese
3. Truffle Mushrooms with Sautéed Eggplant and Parmesan Cheese
What you need first and foremost is great quality bread. I got a sourdough loaf but it’s up to you depending on what you prefer. I also wanted wider bread because my crostinis were not apps they were really the focus of the meal.
Bread Directions:
Heat the grill up or preheat the oven to 350. Slice the bread into 1/4 inch thick slices. Brush both sides with an olive oil garlic powdered mixture and lay on the grill for a minute per side – or in the oven. Do this so the bread gets warm and crispy.
Sautéed Dried Figs:
Grab as many figs as you like and slice the tip off and then in half. Heat a saute pan up with a little olive oil. Once hot add THE MAX 1 tablespoon chopped garlic. Once toasted add the dried figs and toss for a minute. Splash with a little balsamic, toss so it’s spread all over the figs and serve. – This is clearly easy and absolutely scrumptious!
Pea and Mint Puree
*I saw this is the most recent issue of Bon Appetite which is really want put me on the idea of making crostini’s in the first place.
All you need is 1 cup peas, 1 – 2 tablespoon chopped mint, salt and pepper to taste. Combine all ingredients and use your immersion blender to combine together or until mushy. I left some peas solid for aesthetic appeal.
Truffle Mushrooms – I usually would’ve combined in the same pan the sauteed eggplant but some people don’t like eggplant so I left it to individual discretion if they wanted to combine them or not.
I used:
one box of Crimini Mushrooms
1 tablespoon of White Truffle Oil,
1 teaspoon Olive Oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste
Chop the mushrooms up as finely as you can. Heat the oils in a saute pan and once hot add chopped garlic. Saute for 30 seconds then add the chopped mushrooms saute until soft. This is actually a very quick process. The whole thing won’t take you more than 5 minutes.
Sautéing eggplant, even though I had them chopped up super tiny (thanks Dan) still takes longer than the mushrooms for them to get to the consistency you want. If you were to add them with the mushrooms you should do the Eggplant first and then when they are almost done add the mushrooms and still follow the directions from above. Add some chopped basil at the end too to add a glimmer of color.
Random thought: Sometimes I think people don’t like mushrooms because they look like dirt, so that with the eggplant just literally looked not that great, but you can’t resist the taste because they tasted spectacular.
ThatsZoGood 
