First up, slow roasted grape tomato, basil, and mozzarella on garlic crostini:
Crostini is just bread toasted with olive oil, and then rubbed down with raw garlic to finish it off. You can top it with whatever you like (often done with bruschetta), but I wanted to switch it up a little.
Get two pints of grape tomatoes on a baking sheet with olive oil, 2 grated garlic cloves, and lots of salt and pepper:
Slow roast these in a 250 degree oven for about three hours. The flavor will concentrate, and they’ll get sweet, squishy, and wrinkly:
Put these in a bowl, along with all those tomato & olive oil juices. Add half a clove more of grated garlic, a few freshly torn basil leaves, and another hit of salt and pepper if needed:
Crostini time! Slice a loaf of Italian bread and brush both sides with olive oil, and season them with salt:
Pop them into a 350 degree oven for half an hour to toast both sides, giving them a flip 15 minutes through (the baking time will depend on how thick you slice your bread). And since I had this extra tasty olive oil, I used it pretty liberally. When you remove them from the oven, they should be nice and crunchy. Rub halved garlic cloves into the tops of the crostini:
Top them with fresh mozzarella, and put them back into the oven just until the cheese begins to melt:
Then comes that slow roasted grape tomato topping and a little bit more fresh basil, and they’re ready!
These would make pretty perfect party appetizers!
Another great appetizer? Caesar salad.
When you’re making salad dressings from scratch, the quality and type of your oil you’re using matters. So when brainstorming recipes forFreshline Gourmet, I knew a salad was a must.
Making Caesar dressing from scratch starts off with a few surprises: a raw egg yolk, anchovies fillets, mustard, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and a grated clove of garlic. Traditionally, Caesar salads are made in wooden bowls, but ours wasn’t big enough to feed all the people we were having over tonight:
