Fig, Bacon, Pecan, and Ricotta Cheese Crostini
I’ve seen a number of restaurants offer pizza with cooked pork and figs, which serves as a fun combination of sweet, salty, fatty, and cheesy.
Ingredients
- 1 loaf of French baguette-style bread (sliced into 20 slices)
- 3 Tbsp olive oil (to drizzle on the bread)
- 6 dried figs (cut small dice)
- ½ cup cooked bacon lardons (cut small dice)
- ¾ cup pecans (lightly toasted)
- 2 cups Ricotta cheese
- ¼ tsp Kosher salt
- A sprinkle of freshly-ground black pepper
- 4 fresh chives (sliced as finely as possible, as garnish)
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup (as garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400˚F.
- Slice your loaf of bread into crostini-sized slices.
- Lay the bread slices onto a parchment-lined sheet tray, and drizzle lightly with some olive oil on both sides.
- Bake the slices of bread at 400˚F for roughly 8 minutes, or until the bread is toasted and warm, but not dark in color.
- *You still want the bread to be soft on the inside.
- While the crostini are toasting, prepare your topping mixture.
- For the topping, in a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine together the diced figs, bacon lardons, toasted chopped pecans, ricotta cheese, Kosher salt, and freshly-ground black pepper.
- Mix until the ingredients are fully incorporated, and set aside for later.
- When the crostini are done toasting, remove them from the oven.
- Allow the crostini to cool for a minute or two.
- Place a small scoop of the prepared topping on top of each toasted slice of bread.
- Arrange the crostini on a large serving platter.
- Garnish each one with a sprinkle of finely-sliced chives and a drizzle of pure maple syrup.
- Serve with extra napkins.
Notes
You can make the filling in advance, and let it come to room temperature before adding to the warm crostini. For a slightly lower-cost alternative to pure maple syrup, try sprinkling with some brown sugar, or drizzling with a bit of honey.