Roasted Cherry Tomatoes & Cheese Crostini
Toasted baguette slices with a deliciously complex topping of roasted tomatoes and cream cheese make for an impressive tray of hors d'oeuvres.
Crostini is a word used almost synonymously with Bruschetta, but they are technically not the same. A Crostini is a toasted slice of Filone, which it the Italian equivalent of a French Baguette. A toasted slice of Baguette in French is called a Crouton - very different from what Americans think of croutons. A Bruschetta, on the other hand, is a larger slice of sourdough bread, toasted, and served with chopped tomatoes, fresh basil, olive oil and some garlic. A Crostini didn't start out (nor did a Crouton) as a vehicle for hors d'oeuvres, but a Bruschetta specifically did.
Somewhere along the culinary way, someone got the idea of using the smaller toasted bread slice, a Crostini, and treating it like Bruschetta with all manner of toppings, meant to be eaten in (more or less ) single bite. So, Crostini and Bruschetta, over time, were perceived as the same thing.
This recipe is about the roasted tomatoes as much as it is about the Crostini itself. They are delicious served on toasted bread this way, of course, but they are also very versatile as toppings and garnishes for salads, chops and seafood. My Number One Fan brought this roasted tomato recipe home with her after having been served it in a salad during a visit to see her cousin. The original recipe called for seeded Roma Tomatoes and she's made it a couple of times. But seeding a tomato is an arduous task and with an abundance of cherry tomatoes suddenly on our hands, she adapted the recipe for them.
In my opinion, the cherry tomatoes make for an even better recipe than the original. Use whatever cherry or grape tomatoes you find, but we had what are sometimes called heirloom grape tomatoes or a "medley," meaning that red, yellow and sometimes purple cherry or grape tomatoes are packaged together. Bear in mind that whatever tomatoes you use, they will reduce in size to yield 25% of what you started with.
Roasted Cherry Tomato & Cheese Crostini
Ingredients
- 40 oz (4 standard grocery packages) of cherry or grape tomatoes, any variety, washed and halved
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp Morton's Nature's Seasons' Seasoning Blend
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
- 7-8 grinds freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 French baguette, cut into 1/2" - 3/4" slices
- 1 tsp cream cheese, goat cheese other spreadable cheese (like, Boursin) for each slice of bread
- Chiffonade of fresh basil for garnish
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 375°F.
- Mix all of the spices and seasonings with the olive oil. Blend well with a whisk.
- Lay out the tomatoes in a single layer in a Pyrex glass baking dish and drizzle the seasoned olive oil over. Toss the tomatoes with a serving spoon to ensure they are totally coated.
- Roast the tomatoes 3-1/2 hours. Stir the tomatoes with a serving spoon about once an hour during the roasting process.
- Allow the tomatoes to cool before using. You'll have about a cup.
- Pre-heat the oven to 425°F.
- Use a serrated knife to slice the baguette; you should have somewhere around 20-24 slices. Drizzle olive oil on both sides of each slice. Put them on a single layer on a sheet pan or cookie sheet, lined with aluminum foil for faster clean-up.
- Toast the baguette slices for 5 minutes; turn them over and toast for an additional 5 minutes.
- Remove the Crostinis from the oven, spread with cheese and top with a teaspoon of the tomatoes. Garnish with a few strands of fresh basil chiffonade.
