You don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen when serving drinks and you want to enjoy a warm appetizer (snack, finger food, quick nibble)? What to do? Of course: serve crostini! You can prepare them in advance and the only thing you need to do is put them under the grill for 3-5 minutes. A nice crunchy appetizer with a rich taste and intense aroma.

We use taleggio, a semi-soft cheese from Italy with a mild taste. It melts easily, so you need to keep an eye on your oven! If you can’t get hold of taleggio, then use mozzarella instead and add a bit more flavour to the mushroom topping.

What You Need

• For the Mushroom Topping
  • Button Mushrooms and Shiitake
  • Garlic Cloves
  • Olive Oil
  • Thyme and Rosemary
  • Black Pepper
  • (Excellent) Olive Oil
• For the Crostini
  • Old, stale Bread (Baguette preferred)
  • Garlic (optional)
  • Excellent Olive Oil
• Taleggio

What You Do

1. One day before serving the crostini
   1. Clean and chop the mushrooms
   2. Finely chop the rosemary, the thyme and the garlic
   3. Fry the mushroom in olive oil in a heavy iron skillet
   4. Reduce heat
   5. Add herbs and garlic
   6. Continue on low heat for 10-15 minutes
   7. Transfer the mushroom mix to a plate and let cool
   8. Transfer to a kitchen aid and on low speed add some olive oil
   9. Taste and add some black pepper.
   10. You’re looking for a coarsely chopped mixture, one that you can easily distribute over the crostini
   11. Store in the refrigerator.
2. Also one day before serving the crostini
   1. Slice the bread and toast it
   2. Halve a garlic clove, very gently rub the top of the toasted bread with the garlic and then brush with olive oil
   3. An alternative is to preheat your oven to 180 °C or 350 °F, brush both sides with olive oil and bake until golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Perhaps you need to turn the slices over once
   4. Store in a plastic container.
3. A few hours before serving the crostini
   1. slice the taleggio (with crust!)
   2. top the bread with the mushroom mixture and then with a slice of cheese.
   3. Set your oven to grill (broiler)
   4. Transfer the crostini to the top of your oven
   5. Wait for a few minutes (watch carefully!) and serve immediately.