Tomato and Olivada Crostini Recipe

The tomato topping for these crostini is based on that of a “fettunta pomodoro” (a variation of bruschetta made with whole-wheat peasant bread) sampled at Florence’s Cantinetta Antinori, owned by the well-know winemaking family.

To create visual variety for our presentation, we have made half of the crostini with the black olive paste on top and the rest with the red tomato mixture on top. Those who prefer a simpler recipe can sprinkle all of the bread slices with Parmesan before toasting (doubling the amount of cheese) and top all of the crostini with the tomato mixture and then the olive paste.

Makes about 50 crostini.

INGREDIENTS

  • a 16-inch thin loaf italian or french bread, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
  • 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • two 28-ounce cans italian whole tomatoes, seeded and drained
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 small garlic clove, chopped and mashed to a paste with 1/2 teaspoon
  •  salt
  • 2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • about 1/3 cup olivada or other bottled black olive paste(olivada or other
  •  bottled black olive paste available at specialty foods shops and some
  •  supermarkets)
  • garnish: about 50 small fresh parsley leaves

    DIRECTIONS

    Preheat oven to 350°F.

    Arrange bread slices in one layer on 2 baking sheets and sprinkle half with Parmesan. Toast slices in upper and lower thirds of oven until crisp and golden, 8 to 12 minutes, and cool. Crostini may be made 2 weeks ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.

    In a colander or sieve drain tomatoes well, pressing gently on solids to squeeze out as much liquid as possible, and blot with paper towels. Chop tomatoes fine. In a bowl stir together tomatoes, oil, garlic paste, parsley, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste.

    Put a heaping teaspoon tomato mixture on each Parmesan crostino and top with 1/4 teaspoon olive paste. Spread each plain crostino with 1/2 teaspoon olive paste. Spread each plain crostino with 1/2 teaspoon olive paste and top with a heaping 1/2 teaspoon tomato mixture.

    Garnish crostini with parsley leaves.

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