Crostini Three Ways – Perfect Party Food

Crostini Three Ways – Stracchino and spinach, garlic and cannellini bean and Prosciutto, Pecorino cheese with truffles drizzled in honey. These three easy crostini are they solid party food.

Crostini are an Italian appetizer that consists of grilled toasted bread, normally ciabatta topped with an array of meats, cheeses or vegetables. They are the solid way to start off an evening whilst sipping a glass of Prosecco.

We love making Crostini because they are so easy to make and are so versatile, you can top them with whatever you want. Whenever us and our boyfriend are in the centre of Siena strolling along the shops and narrow windy streets we often stop for an apertivio (an Italian aperitif). This normally consists of a good glass of Aperol Spritz or Prosecco and Crostini topped with meats, paté and vegeatbles.

The first type of crostini we made was stracchino and spinach. Stracchino, prounouced s tra-kee-no is an Italian cow's milk cheese from the north of Italy. It's soft and creamy in texture and has a good and tangy flavour.

To make the crostini, we spread each toasted slice of bread with stracchino cheese. Then we wilted some spinach in a pan with garlic and a little oil, salt and pepper. We squeezed over a little lemon juice and let it cool slightly before adding a spoonful on top of each slice. This is so simple yet utterly good.

Another one of our favourite ways of using stracchino is mixing it with sausage meat, spread on bread and grilled until the sausage is cooked through. OH YUM

The second topping is canellini bean, garlic and lemon. This one is so moreish and comforting and takes seconds to make.

Fry a clove of garlic in a small frying pan for a couple seconds. Add the drained and rinsed canellini beans and start to mash them with a fork, add the lemon rind, salt, pepper and oil and mash it all together. Serve warm on grilled toasted bread with a sprinkling of basil. good.

We also love to have cannellini mash like this as a side to meat dished such as pork steaks or chicken, it's a wonderful speedy substitute for mash potatoes and is as comforting.

OK one more to go and it's our favourite….

Prosciutto, Pecorino cheese with truffles and honey drizzle. Oh yes this one is our absolute favourite and you're going to love it too!

There's no cooking involved for this one so it's simple the key is to have the best quality ingredients you can get your hands on. Firstly the Prosciutto has to be good quality, it's important otherwise it won't taste as good. If you can get Tuscan Prosciutto Crudo freshly cut from an Italian deli instead of pre-packaged it would be ideal.

Secondly the cheese oh the cheese! This Pecorino cheese has pieces of black truffle all the way through it and the flavour is good! It's common to find in the supermarkets here in Italy but a good Italian deli should have it. If not, use normal Percorino cheese and top it with a tiny tiny drop of truffle oil. YUM.

We top each grilled bread slice with a layer of Prosciutto followed by the Pecorino and then drizzle it with some beautiful runny honey. And your mouth begins to water.

SAVE FOR LATER

Ingredients

Makes 18 crostini

• 1-2 Loaves loaf of ciabatta (to make all crostini below)
• 1 tbsp olive oil

For the Spinach and Stracchino:

• 6 slices of ciabatta bread
• 100 g stracchino cheese
• 1 clove garlic
• squeeze of lemon juice
• 90 g Spinach (washed and dried)
• 1 tbsp olive oil

For the Cannelini bean, garlic and lemon

• 6 slices Ciabatta bread
• 380 g tin cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)
• Zest of half a lemon
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper
• small handful of basil

For the Prosciutto, Pecorino and Honey

• 6 slices Ciabatta bread
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 120 g Prosciutto Crudo
• 60 g Pecorino di Tartuffo (thinley sliced, Pecorino with truffles)
• pepper (to season)

Method

1. Put a griddle pan on a high heat. Cut the ciabatta into 18 slices and drizzle each side of bread with the 1 tbsp of olive oil. Place on the griddle pan until toasted and slightly charred on each side (do this in batcheset aside on a chopping board or large plate.

2. To make the stracchino and spinach crostini put a medium sized pan on a medium heat with 1 tbsp of oil. Finely chop the garlic clove and add to the pan, fry for 30 seconds. Roughly chop the spinach and add to the pan, add 1tbsp of water if it sticks this will help it wilt. Once the spinach is wilted sprinkle with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice and set aside to cool.

3. Spread 6 slices of toasted bread generously with stracchino cheese then top with spinach.

4. For the cannellini bean Crostini add 1 tbsp of olive oil to a pan under a low heat. Finely chop the garlic and add to the pan, fry for 1 minute. Add the cannellini beans and start to roughly mash them with a fork. Add the lemon zest, salt and pepper and remove from the heat. Add another tbsp of oil and mash everything together, spread on 6 slices of toasted bread topped with a little basil.

5. For the last Crostini simply top 6 slices of toasted bread with Prosciutto, cheese and drizzle over some honey, sprinkle with pepper.

Kitchen notes

Calories on average per crostino