Tuesday, October 29, 2013

roast me a grape





It's been a while since I posted anything to do with food...or pretty much anything for that matter.
With Pintrest, and all the amazing food blogs I figured why bother?
But I had to share this one.

We had some friends down to our new place a few weeks ago and we had a nice late lunch/early dinner on a Sunday afternoon.
Love doing that.
Anyhow being in wine country I tried to use as many local ingredients as possible.
So we started out with this delicious roasted grape and ricotta crostini.
I had something similar once on a trip to California and wanted to try to make my own version.
so tasty.

Roasted Grape & Ricotta Crostini   

1 good quality baguette, cut into 12 half-inch pieces
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 cup ricotta cheese 
a bunch of red grapes - you want about 48 grapes total.  Keep the grapes as clusters.
5 tbsp olive oil
sea salt and pepper
10 fresh thyme sprigs

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Brush the baguette slices with olive oil and toast on a bake sheet until golden - about 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and turn heat up to 450*F. 
In a large bowl, toss the grapes with 3 tbsp olive oil, good grindings of pepper and salt and 6 sprigs of thyme.  Place on a parchment lined bake sheet and roast until skins pucker - about 8-10 minutes.  Meanwhile, spread the ricotta on the cooled baguette slices.  When the grapes have puckered, remove them from oven, let them cool until you are able to comfortably handle them but are still quite warm.  Remove them from their stems and toss with 2 tbsp olive oil.
Place 4or 5 roasted grapes on top of the ricotta, garnish with some fresh thyme sprigs and serve immediately.  Makes 12 crostini.   

You could also add a few crushed roasted walnuts on top or substitute a creamy goat cheese for  the ricotta.
enjoy!


1 comment:

Gabriella said...

mmm yum!