CROSTINI

Picture this: slices of bread, covered with a thick meat sauce, topped with cheese, breaded and fried.  Imagine eating one of these treats… with the slightly melted cheese stretching out into the rich sauce and the crunchy slice of fried bread.  Is your mouth watering already?  These are crostini and I made them as a part of the Sicilian Street Food New Year’s Eve Party I organised for this month’s Foodbuzz 24×24 event.  As they require the same cheese as Spiedini, I usually make both dishes together.  Enjoy!

For the meat sauce filling – recipe adapted from Ricette di Sicilia

Ingredients:
200 gms – 7 oz. beef mince
200 gms – 7 oz. pork mince
1 onion, diced
100 gms – 3.5 oz. tomato concentrate
50 gms – 1.75 oz. Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ glass white wine
Salt and Pepper

Put the diced onion and extra virgin olive oil in a pot and sauté it until soft (1).  Add the beef and pork mince and brown well, breaking all the lumps with a wooden spoon (2).  Add the white wine and let the alcohol evaporate (3).  Add the salt, pepper, bay leaves, cloves, tomato concentrate and ½ glass of water (4).  Cook it for 30 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.  Add the finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano (5) and set aside to cool down (6).

For assembling crostini

Ingredients:
1 big loaf of stale bread, sliced into 1 cm – ½ inch thick slices*
Primosale cheese, sliced into 0.5 cm – ¼ inch thick slices
Meat sauce
Egg whites, lightly beaten
Flour and breadcrumbs, mixed in equal proportions
Salt

*this bread has to be compact, with no holes inside.  It has to be bought and kept to dry a couple of days before making crostini.

Start by slicing the cheese.  Then slice bread and cut it out in the same shape as the cheese, this will make it easier to crumb coat them.

Spread a heaped tablespoon of meat sauce on top of the slice of bread and top it up with the slice of cheese.  Do this for all the slices of bread and cheese.

Dip them in the lightly beaten egg whites and coat well with the flour and breadcrumb mix.

Shallow fry them in hot vegetable oil.  Fry them cheese side down first, to avoid the cheese from melting completely.  Serve hot.

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