What I love most about this appetizer is that you can prepare a large number of small bites in a relatively short period of time. The bites are small, but packed with flavor. This is a perfect pre-dinner snack to serve when hosting a casual party with a small or larger-sized group.
The recipe can easily be scaled up if you are trying to feed more people. You can enlist the help of a friend in the kitchen to assist you with crostini assembly once they come out of the oven.
Crostini with Cherry Tomatoes, Feta Cheese, Garlic, and Fresh Basil
What I love most about this appetizer is that you can prepare a large number of small bites in a relatively short period of time. The bites are small, but packed with flavor. This is a perfect pre-dinner snack to serve when hosting a casual party with a small or larger-sized group. The recipe can easily be scaled up if you are trying to feed more people. You can enlist the help of a friend in the kitchen to assist you with crostini assembly once they come out of the oven.
Ingredients
- 1 loaf of baguette-style bread, cut on a bias into small ¼” slices
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely minced
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- ¼ tsp freshly-ground black pepper
- 24 cherry tomatoes, cut in half and lightly salted
- ½ cup Feta cheese, crumbled, softened at room temperature
- 12 basil leaves, cut in half
- 1 Tbsp olive oil, for drizzling on finished crostini
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Cut your baguette on a diagonal bias into thin slices, and arrange the slices on a sheet tray lined with a piece of parchment paper.
- Top the slices with a bit of minced garlic.
- Drizzle the slices lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle the tops with a small quantity of Kosher salt and a few cracks of freshly-ground black pepper.
- Bake at 375F for roughly 12 minutes, or until the bread is lightly toasted.
- While the crostini are baking, cut your cherry tomatoes in half and sprinkle lightly with Kosher salt.
- Place the halved cherry in a small bowl, and allow the liquid to drain from them for roughly 10 minutes.
- Drain the liquid from the bowl of tomatoes after 10 minutes, and set the tomatoes aside for later.
- When the crostini are very lightly toasted, remove them from the oven, and top with some cherry tomatoes, crumbled Feta cheese, and some fresh basil leaves.
- Drizzle the slices with a bit more olive oil, and serve immediately, with napkins.
Notes
One thing I love about crostini is that they are so versatile—whatever you have in your fridge can be added to tiny pieces of toasted bread and served up as appetizers within ten minutes. The results can be truly spectacular.