Make My Day Camp: SM: Goat Cheese Toasts

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

SM: Goat Cheese Toasts

I got this recipe from Ina Garten's 'Go to Dinners' - I only had a small piece of leftover baguette and made myself one piece of goat cheese toast just to try the flavor combo and really wish I had more baguette to make additional pieces! Although on second thought, if I had more bread I'd just have kept making and eating these terrific toasts, so maybe it's good I had built-in portion control. I ate the toast for lunch on the side of last week's spinach and white bean soup and oh my gosh, new favorite thing.

Now because I'm lazy and like short-cuts, I didn't follow her recipe exactly - I'll give you her recipe tho and you can modify as you like. I didn't bake the bread, popped it in the toaster oven instead; and didn't rub it with garlic but sprinkled with garlic powder. Castelvetrano olives are my favorite green olive, they are firm and have a little crunch to them but I'm sure these would be good with other kinds of green olives.

I'm not sure my grocery store brand of olive oil would be considered 'good' to Ina, but it tastes good to me haha. I used coarse salt and coarse pepper, along with plain ol' goat cheese (not crumbles, I used it in log form).

Ina's recipe:

1 fresh baguette
good olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 or 2 garlic cloves, halved lengthwise
8 ounces creamy goat cheese, such as Montrachet, at room temperature
pitted green olives, such as Castelvetrano, halved

Preheat the oven to 400'.

Slice the baguette diagonally into twelve (1/4" thick) slices. Lay the slices in one layer on a sheet pan, brush each with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake the taste for 8 to 10 minutes, until they are browned and crisp. As soon as they are cool enough to handle, rub one side of the toasts with the cut side of the garlic clove. Let cool, then spread thee toasts with goat cheese and place the olives on top. Serve warm or at room temperature.

She notes they're perfect to serve with drinks or as a crouton to float on top of a bowl of soup.

Makes 12 toasts