Sunday, March 7, 2010

Bruschetta



We had an Oscar night picnic tonight, and the spread included these little bruchetta's with fontina and greens which were meant to be simply complimentary to the rest of the meal but they were the biggest hit out of everything. Now let me tell you, dear reader, that we also had chocolate peanut butter cookies with a big ol' plop of jam right in the center. This bruchetta was actually better than those cookies. That's how insanely delicious these little toasty snacks of wonder are.


See? Nice picnick huh? It was. The food made up for the fact that after suffering through all of the boring Oscar categories our DVR cut off right before they opened the envelope to announce best actor. That's right people we missed ALL of the good stuff; best actor and actress, director and picture. Sad as that may have been we had that bruchetta and it was crunchy, and garlicky, with warm melty fontina cheese all over the top. Outrageously good, I am surprised that we weren't reduced to blows fighting over who got the last piece.

So maybe our cookies were a bit meh, and yeah, we did miss watching the first female win the best director category and "the dude" getting his Oscar, but there was warm delicious bruchetta and I gotta say that was enough for me. I can go to sleep happy.

Bruschetta with Fontina and Greens
From Giada De Laurentis

  • 1 pound loaf of ciabatta with the ends cut off and sliced into 1/2 inch slices

  • 1 Garlic clove sliced down the middle to rub on toasts

  • 3 Garlic cloves minced

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil to cook greens+ roughly 2 more to drizzle on toasts

  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

  • 12 oz baby spinach

  • Kosher salt

  • 2 cups (4 oz) fontina cheese, grated

To make the toasts preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the slices of bread on the parchment paper in a single layer and drizzle with olive oil. Place in the oven and allow to bake four roughly 10 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove the toasts and allow to cool slightly and then rub the toasts with the cut portion of the garlic halves. Set the toasts aside and get to work on the spinach.

In a skillet heat the 3 tablespoons of olive oil and add the three minced garlic cloves along with the red pepper flakes and cook until you can smell the garlic, about 30 seconds. Add the spinach in batches and cook until wilted then season to taste with salt.

Top the toasts with the spinach and then sprinkle with cheese and put them back into the oven to season with salt and serve.

1 comment:

  1. You are right, the cookies were okay...I think they would be better without so much cocoa powder and tasted more peanuty. I went to bed wishing I had more bruschetta for breakfast:) I also love how crazy easy they are to make. Thanks for making the picnic festive even though we missed the big moments at the end!!!

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