Difficulty: 2/5
Crostinis are a really easy and cute way to impress the eye and taste buds without having to dedicate endless hours of your time in the kitchen. Today I bring you two combinations: pesto + prosciutto and ricotta + walnut praline. Both are delicious and I’m sure that you’ll love them. In total it took me about half an hour to make everything and I swear they were superb. Also, if you like ricotta and pesto, you can store these mixes for future salads and/or sandwiches. Where you need to be most careful is in the making of the caramel, specially if you don’t have much practice at it, since it could turn too brown and taste a bit bitter. Apart from that, it’s really simple.
Portions: 20 crostini each
Ingredients:
For the ricotta + praliné crostini:
– 5 slices of white bread
– 20ml olive oil
– 200g ricotta
– 100ml whipping cream
– salt to taste
– 100g toasted walnuts
– 100g sugar
For the pesto + prosciuto crostini:
– 5 slices of white bread
– 20ml olive oil
– 100g prosciutto
– 100ml olive oil
– 50g toasted almonds
– 50g toasted walnuts
– 50g basil leaves
– salt and pepper to taste
Procedure:
1. To make the toast, cut the bread using a cutter, glass o whatever you have in hand. You can also cut squares using a knife, you don’t need a cutter 🙂 Paint them with a bit of olive oil and they go into the oven at 180 for 6-10min until nicely golden and crunchy. Alternatively, you can also use thin baguette slices.
2. For the ricotta + praline, mash the ricotta with the back of a spatula until grainy, and then mix vigorously with the cream and salt until smoothly mixed.
3. For the praline, put the toasted walnuts on a silpat mat spread out. Then make a caramel by spreading out evenly the sugar on a large pan on med-low heat. As it melts, shake it so that the un-melted sugar is always evenly spread on top. Stop when all the sugar has melted and drizzle it carefully on top of the walnuts. Be careful not to burn yourself! Let it cool down completely before you touch it. Then chop it up (not on the silpat or you’ll cut it terribly) and have it ready to assemble 🙂 If you’re going to store this for salads or desserts, keep it in a closed container as moisture will cause the caramel to melt and become sticky.
4. For the pesto, put everything in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
5. Cut the prosciutto to put on top!
It’s as easy as that 🙂 You do have to do come prepping but it’s really quite straight forward. I hope you like it and try it at home! Maybe for your next cheese and wine? Let me know in the comments what other appetizers you like 🙂
