Strawberry Balsamic Crostini

A light and delicious bruschetta of fresh strawberries, thyme, and lemon atop whipped feta with honey and cinnamon pecans crostini.

This is one of those appetizers where you can’t eat just one. It’s sweet, salty, acidic, and crunchy all in one bite.

Simply put… it’s AMAZING!

I love strawberries and, it wasn’t until I became an adult, did I fully appreciate them with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs.

Just a few simple ingredients and you have an amazing dish that can be eaten on its own or as one seriously delicious appetizer!

Let’s make this, k?

 

Ingredients Shopping List

You really only need a few ingredients for the base recipe (strawberry mixture) but trust me when I tell you that you’re going to want to add the feta spread!

• Strawberries – these must be fresh
• Lemon – fresh as well
• Black Pepper
• Thyme Sprigs – you can use dried but it’s not the same.
• Crostini
• Balsamic vinegar

Since it’s such a simple recipe, I highly suggest getting really good bread and balsamic vinegar.

How to Make Crostini

Ingredients

• 1 12-14” long loaf of crusty Italian or French bread, sliced into 1/2” slices
• 3–5 Tbl Extra Virgin Olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Slice the bread on an angle to get elongated slices. Brush one side lightly with olive oil and place on a baking sheet.
3. Bake the bread for 6-8 minutes or until the tops start to toast lightly. Remove from the oven, brush the other side with the remaining oil and bake for another 5-7 minutes. Remove from the oven when done.

Mix up the Bruschetta!

1. To a bowl, add the chopped strawberries, lemon juice, thyme leaves, and black pepper.
2. Gently mix to combine.
3. Cover and allow to chill for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to marry.

Now you could totally stop there and just add the Strawberry mixture to the crostini but I wanted to elevate it a bit more.

So I paired it with my whipped feta spread.  Folks, this was pure magic!!!

Whipped Feta with Honey and Cinnamon Pecans Spread

This recipe only uses 7 ingredients where most you should have already on hand but if not, your local market would carry them.

• Feta Cheese – feta cheese is salty and tangy. You want to buy the block version of feta, not the crumbles
• Mascarpone – I like the creaminess and mildness of mascarpone over regular cream cheese in this recipe
• Oil – I’ve made this with both grapeseed oil and olive oil. Both work though olive oil gives it another elevated depth of flavor
• Honey – Since this is a sweetened dip, it calls for almost a 1/4 cup ( about 2 ounces) in the dip and then extra for drizzle. You’re welcome to cut back on the amount to your sweetness preference
• Chopped Pecans
• Cinnamon
• Crushed Rainbow Peppercorns – I liked seeing the variety of colors plus having the pink in there help cut back on the harshness of say all black pepper

Get the FULL recipe here.

Let’s Assemble The Bruschetta

Without the Feta spread

1. To the crostini, add on 1-2 tsp of the strawberry mixture.
2. Drizzle on some balsamic vinegar and garnish with thyme leaves

With the Feta Spread

1. To the crostini, smear on a Tbl or so of the feta spread.
2. Next, add on 1-2 tsp of the strawberry mixture.
3. Drizzle on some balsamic vinegar and garnish with thyme leaves

Can these be made ahead?

Sort of…

What can be made ahead

You can make the strawberry mixture up to 4 hours before serving. You may need to drain it as the berries will give off additional liquid.

The feta spread you can make up to 3 days prior.

The crostini you can make 2 days ahead and keep in a sealed container.

What you cannot do ahead of time

Assembling them. You can assemble them up to 30 minutes prior to serving but no more. You want the crostini to stay crisp and the berries to not seep additional liquid onto the plate.

 

Substitutions

This is my favorite part! I love mixing things up.

• Fruits – blueberries, sliced peaches, nectarines, plums
• Feta Spread – use goat cheese or ricotta for a great twist on flavors
• Crostini – crackers, rice cakes, puff pastry cups

 

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