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Pesto Cheese Crostini

August 7, 2012 by 6 Comments

Basil season…it’s the most wonderful time of the year!  I’m tossing it into corn and zucchini salad, sprinkling it on grilled pizza, and making teeny little bacon tomato and basil sandwiches.  But of course the reigning champion of all basil wonderfulness is pesto.  And my favorite thing to do with pesto is to drizzle it on things.  Especially things like crispy little pieces of toasted French bread that are slathered with mascarpone cheese.

Now, pesto recipes are all around us and I’m sure you have your favorite, but just in case, here’s a link to the one I always use on the simply wonderful Simply Recipes site.  It always reminds me that while pine nuts are one of the standard ingredients in pesto, walnuts make a perfectly marvelous pesto as well, and so walnuts are what I use!

Anyway, once you have your pesto made (5 minutes!) and your bread toasted (10 minutes!) you are about 3 minutes away from these gorgeous little nibbles.  Spread the warm toasts with a generous slather of mascarpone cheese (or cream cheese, or goat cheese, or whatever nice spreadable you have on hand).  I like mascarpone because it has a slightly sweet flavor that gives me that whole sweet and salty thing that I am addicted to.  Now spoon on a drizzle of pesto.  The more pesto the sassier these little guys will be, so you can go all the way from mild to raise your eyebrows…you decide!  I finish mine off with a pinch of freshly grated parmesan and one of those cute teeny little basil leaves that are left on the stalk after you’ve pesto-ed up all their big brothers.

I can tell you from experience that a plateful of these and a glass of wine are all you need for a lovely summertime supper.  Perfect pesto…here’s to summer.

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Pesto Cheese Crostini

Yield: 24 crostini

Pesto Cheese Crostini

Ingredients

24 slices french bread, about 1/4 inch thick
Olive oil for toasting bread
1 cup pesto
1 cup mascarpone or cream cheese
Grated parmesan cheese
Tiny basil leaves for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Brush bread slices with olive oil, arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake until golden, 5-10 minutes. Let cool.
3. Spread each crostini with cheese and then drizzle with pesto - a little if you like a mild taste and more if you like more snap!
4. Garnish with parmesan cheese and basil leaves

Still Hungry?

Crostini with Peaches and Ricotta from Framed Cooks

Cranberry Orange Brie Crostini from Two Peas and their Pod

Crostini with Clams from Recipe Girl

Filed Under: appetizer, Entertaining Tagged With: , ,

Comments

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  1. Sue L. says:
    August 7, 2012 at 10:20 am

    These look amazing!! (received my coupon for Buitoni pasta & the cutting board yesterday — so exciting to win! Thanks…..)

    Reply
  2. Joanne says:
    August 7, 2012 at 4:32 pm

    Basil and pesto have a way of elevating just about any dish to a higher plane. Add in cheese…it’s. Veritable masterpiece! Loving these.

    Reply
  3. Cupcake and Talk says:
    August 8, 2012 at 1:49 pm

    These look addicting. I can’t wait to try the pesto made with walnuts.

    Reply

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