Peach, Prosciutto and Ricotta Crostini

When I was younger my favorite restaurant was an Italian restaurant in Rockville, Maryland called Il Pizzico.  They had a few dishes that I loved - a shrimp and tomato crostini, a pasta with stewed calamari and dessert called "chocolate salami."  We started going there for dinner when it was a really small cafe with a glass case at the front full of desserts and stopped going after it got all fancy and expensive.  I believe Il Pizzico was also my first experience with tiramisu, but I didn't grow to love tiramisu until years later.  Once they fancied the restaurant up, they took all of our favorite dishes off the menu in favor of other, less homestyle dishes and raised prices dramatically.  So that was the end of that.  I haven't been back to Il Pizzico in at least 15 years, but it had a lasting effect on my diet - my love of crostini stems from meals I ate at that restaurant.  I really should ask my mother what went in the crostini aside from shrimp, scallions and tomatoes because she used to make a version of it at home that I would love to recreate.  And I am determined to make chocolate salami eventually just to see if it can possibly be as good as I remember it being. 

Back in June of this year Bon Appetit had an article called "Summer Crostini 7 Ways."  Two of the recipes from that article immediately caught my eye - this one, and a recipe for Tomato, Mozzarella and Thai Basil Crostini that we made about a month ago.  There are a few other recipes that I want to try from that issue (including one for Peas, Mint and Parmesan Crostini), but I figure I will get around to them eventually.  I decided this morning that these crostini would be the perfect light lunch served alongside a simple arugula salad.  We had some of the really nice local ricotta that I picked up from Whole Foods the other day left in the fridge, so we went to the farmers' market this morning and picked up some fresh peaches and some ciabatta bread.  Then we wandered down to Salumeria Rosi to pick up some of their amazing prosciutto.  By the time we accomplished all that it was about 12:45 pm and I was starving so we whipped up some crostini.  I really liked this recipe, but Alex and I both agreed that the Tomato, Mozzarella and Thai Basil Crostini was better.  Alex wanted there to be more prosciutto on each crostini, but that's because he is obsessed.  I thought the amount of prosciutto he wanted totally obscured the flavor of the ricotta and the fresh peaches.  The recipe is inspired by the traditional Italian combination of prosciutto and melon and all in all, I think in this case traditional might be better.  While I enjoyed the summery flavors of this crostini, the combination of peach and prosciutto wasn't quite as successful to me.  Even so I thought it was a really lovely lunch.

Recipe after the jump!

Tomato, Mozzarella & Thai Basil Crostini

I am going to dive right into this post by proclaiming this my favorite dish that we have made in the past few weeks and certainly my favorite dish this month.  The Pasta with Sun Gold Tomatoes was a close second, but I just really loved everything about this crostini.  The combination of ingredients sounds a little weird because who has ever heard of an Asian-inspired caprese salad?  Actually, I have now that I think about it.  David Chang has a recipe for a Cherry Tomato Salad in the Momofuku cookbook (see this post on Momofukufor2).  But it uses tofu instead of mozzarella and shiso instead of basil.  Moving on.  Sesame oil and rice vinegar with mozzarella?  Not to mention Thai basil?  Weird.  But so very delicious.  Be a little judicious about the amount of garlic you rub on your toast because the garlic can taste a little abrasive against the other, more delicate flavors.  I went a little heavy-handed on my first few crostinis before I realized just how much garlic I was using.  Oops.  Even so it was amazing.  I loved it.  I believe I called it "pretty F-ing fabulous."  I admit it.  Sometimes I have a potty mouth.  But sometimes a little profanity is in order.

While I am at it, I'm also going to dive right in and say that this is probably my last post of the week.  Or at least until Saturday.  And for those of you who want to know why the answer is simple.  I don't think I will be eating dinner anywhere but my desk until this weekend at the earliest.  And I haven't eaten dinner away from my desk since last Friday so I havne't been able to stock up on posts.  Posting this weekend might be a tad optimistic, but if I am not at the office I will do my best!  At least I am leaving you all with a delicious post before I disappear again.  And at least I am taking a break from working to do so?


Recipe after the jump!

Fig, Prosciutto and Ricotta Crostini

With all of the fresh figs I purchased from Eataly yesterday I knew I had to do something else with them.  Luckily I had also picked up some nice crusty bread, some 18-month aged Prosciutto di Parma, and some fresh ricotta from Salvatore Bklyn (which in my opinion makes the best fresh ricotta you can find in NYC).  So I threw together these crostini.  There is no real recipe, instead you just toast some fresh bread, then slather it with fresh ricotta and top with arugula, prosciutto and quartered figs.  Then you drizzle honey over the top and season with freshly ground black pepper and just a touch of salt.  Since there is no cooking involved and very few ingredients, it is pretty important to get the very best prosciutto, ricotta and figs that you can.  I'll be honest and admit that our honey came straight out of a honey bear squeeze bottle and the arugula was the kind you buy pre-washed in bags at the grocery store.  If you're not a pork lover or you don't like arugula, you can feel free to omit the prosciutto and the arugula and just serve crostini topped with ricotta, figs, honey, s&p.  Or you can just play around with a variety of ingredients until you find a combination that suits you. 

Seared Radish Crostini and Wilted Mustard Greens Salad with Bacon

The past two weeks radishes have been part of my haul from my CSA.  I don't know about you but I generally find radishes pretty to look at, but not all that palatable.  I don't mind them thinly sliced in salads, but their peppery bite is something that I'm not altogether sure I enjoy in big moutfuls.  My father used to eat raw radishes and scallions with just a sprinkle of salt - something I will never be able to do.  Since I don't really enjoy the taste of raw scallions (although I do love the crunch), I decided to try roasting them.  Depending on the ingredient, roasting can either mellow flavors out or intensify them.  In this case, I was hoping that roasting the radishes would mellow them out and make them a touch sweeter.  About a month ago I saw a recipe on the NY Times website that called for roasting radishes and making crostini out of them so I have been saving it for the day when I had enough radishes from the CSA to whip up some crostini.  To go with the crostini I decided to make a salad with another part of our CSA haul - half a pound of mustard greens.  I'm not overly familiar with mustard greens, so rather than go at it blindly I decided to hit Epicurious for some recipes and inspiration.

I was very happy with tonight's dinner.  And by extension I am super happy with our CSA Chubby Bunny.  All of the produce we picked up yesterday was super fresh and super delicious.  The radish crostini was really interesting.  I loved the combination of the toasted bread, the nutty and buttery bagna cauda-based sauce, and the roasted radishes.  I might very well be a radish convert.  I do think that the recipe makes an enormous amount of sauce for the amount of radishes it calls for, but that's ok with me.  I used a levain boule from Balthazar as the base for my crostini and it worked out fabulously.  I thought that the salad was also pretty fabulous.  The balsamic and the onions made the salad slightly sweet, and the bacon gave it a nice porky, salty flavor.  Hurray CSA and hurray dinner.

Recipes after the jump!