t’s an app…  Easy and delicious.

Cream Cheese spread

• 4 oz Philadelphia cream cheese
• 2 oz chevre (goat cheese)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 oz pine nuts
• 1/2 cup of fresh basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cucumber (seeded and optional)

In a food processor blend well and refrigerate.

Carnival Tomato Tapenade

• 2 heirloom yellow tomatoes
• 10 large cherry tomatoes
• 2.5 oz can of sliced black olives
• 1 pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 pinch of red pepper flakes
• 3 red radishes, trimmed, cleaned and sliced thinly (see Assembly)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 oz of capers (if you insist…)

Seed and squeeze the water out of the tomatoes.  Into a food processor for all of it and pulse until coarsely chopped.  Into a sieve or a strainer, squeeze out at much liquid as you can and then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Tomato Bruschetta

• 3 large garden ripe tomatoes
• 1 large onion
• 1 yellow bell pepper (roasted and skinned)
• 4 Tbsp fresh cilantro
• Extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

If you’ve never hand-roasted a bell pepper, don’t sweat it.  You can watch this video and follow along.  I think this guy is way off the mark because I never put them into an oven.  Far too much energy wasted trying to char the skin.  We have a gas stove and all I do is fire up a burner and drop the pepper right on top of the flame.  When I smell the char, I grab my tongs and turn the pepper “15-minutes” in one direction.  In no time, I’m finishing with the bottom and the top of the pepper and the entire thing is charred.  Hint: In the video he drops the pepper into a bowl and covers it.  That’s lame.  Grab a paper bag and drop the pepper inside and scrunch the bag closed.  The steam from the heat will peel the pepper’s skin and make it easy to remove.  After 10 to 15 minutes, pull the pepper out and under a cold water tap, rinse the charred-skin clean from the flesh.  Very easy.

So, back to our bruschetta:  Seed and squeeze the water out of the tomatoes and add to the food processor.  Chop the onion into large chunks and add to the processor.  With all of the ingredients except for the olive oil in the processor, pulse until well incorporated and coarsely chopped.  Into a sieve or a strainer, squeeze out at much liquid as you can and then add the olive oil and toss until it’s well incorporated.

 Assembly…

Grab a loaf of French or baguette bread and slice it at a biased cut. Brush each piece with olive oil and then place face-down on a preheated griddle pan.  Once toasted nicely, remove and assemble.  The bruschettta can stand on it’s own while the cream cheese and basil spread gets topped with the tapenade.  Each crostini with the basil cream cheese and tapenade gets shingled with the radish slices for a little peppery-crunch.  (Notice the photo.)  So you grab a spoon and spread each slice as necessary: 16 slices of Frenched bread  equals 8-pieces of each.  Cream cheese and tapenade on each while eight bread slices get the bruschetta.  It’s guaranteed.

Garnish with a flower from your garden and enjoy.