Sunday, February 24, 2013

Super Bowl Snacks 1: Feta Bruschetta

This year our house hosted the Caps/Pens game slash Super Bowl viewing so I had an entire afternoon of grazing to prepare for. There weren't too many of us so we decided to do half portions of most of the recipes.
The weekend before I had crashed at a friend's house and on Saturday morning I made everybody watch Barefoot Contessa while we were lazing around. She made a tomato feta crostini that everyone agreed looked awesome so that became the first course for the afternoons. This was the original recipe, but I modified it a smidge.

Makes 20 to 25 crostini; serves 6 to 8Ingredients
  • 6 ounces good feta cheese, crumbled I used 4 oz regular feta and 2 oz sun dried tomato and herb feta because that is what I had
  • 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
  • ⅔ cup good olive oil, divided
  • 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 Tbsp. pine nuts I omitted these because I really don't dig pine nuts
  • 2 Tbsp. minced shallots (2 shallots)
  • 2 tsp. minced garlic (2 cloves)
  • 2 Tbsp. good red wine vinegar
  • 2 pounds ripe heirloom tomatoes, ½"-diced I have friends that are weird about tomatoes (read: Annie will only eat cherry tomatoes) so I used cherry tomatoes!
  • 3 Tbsp. julienned fresh basil leaves, plus extra for serving
  • 20 to 25 (½"-thick) diagonal baguette slices, toasted
Directions
Place feta and cream cheese in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse until cheeses are mixed. Add ⅓ cup olive oil, lemon juice, ½ tsp. salt, and ¼ tsp. pepper and process until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve.



For the tomato topping, up to an hour before serving, combine shallots, garlic, and vinegar in a medium bowl. Set aside 5 minutes to allow shallots to absorb vinegar. Whisk in remaining ⅓ cup olive oil, 1 tsp. salt, and ½ tsp. pepper. Add tomatoes, stir gently, and set aside 10 minutes. Stir in basil and taste for seasoning.


To assemble crostini, spread each baguette slice with a generous amount of whipped feta. With a slotted spoon, place tomatoes on top. Put crostini on plates and scatter with the reserved toasted pine nuts. Sprinkle with basil and serve.

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This was really easy to make and were very tasty. I renamed it Feta Bruschetta because it sounded more fun. The only thing I would change is the amount of lemon juice. I personally found it a little too much...

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