Goat’s cheese and chicory crostini with balsamic pickled shallots
- Portion size: Makes about 20
- Hands-on time 30 min, oven time 10 min, plus salting and cooling
- Difficulty: easy
A perfect nibble to have with champagne, these goat’s cheese crostini are easy to make ahead so all you have to do – when guests arrive – is assemble them.
Ingredients
For the pickled shallots
- 500g shallots
- 1 tbsp fine sea salt
- 350ml malt vinegar
- 150ml balsamic vinegar
- 100g caster sugar
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 fresh rosemary sprigs
- 2 fresh thyme sprigs
- ½ tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp pink peppercorns
- ¼ tsp each black and yellow mustard seeds
- ½ tsp caraway seeds
For the crostini
- 3 large slices sourdough
- 3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- 2 heads red or yellow chicory, finely sliced
- 1 fresh thyme sprig
- 2 tbsp clear honey, plus extra for drizzling
- Handful fresh flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
- 100g soft goat’s cheese
You’ll also need…
- 1 large (about 1 litre) sterilised jar, or several smaller jars with lids
Method
- Peel and halve the shallots, put in a glass or ceramic bowl, toss in the salt, then set aside for 1 hour. Rinse well to remove the salt.
- Gently warm the remaining pickling ingredients in a heavy-based pan over a low heat to dissolve the sugar, then bring up to a fast simmer. Remove from the heat, add the rinsed shallots, then set aside to cool before transferring to your sterilised jar.
- Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6. Cut the sourdough into bite-size pieces, put on a baking tray and drizzle with a little olive oil. On a separate baking tray, toss the sliced chicory and thyme with a little olive oil and spread out. Put both baking trays in the oven and cook the bread for 5-8 minutes until crisp, then remove to cool. After 8 minutes, drizzle a little honey over the chicory, then return to the oven for 2 minutes until lightly charred. Set aside to cool.
- For the parsley drizzle, in a small bowl whisk together the 3 tbsp olive oil with 2 tbsp of the onion pickling juice, 2 tbsp honey, the chopped parsley and a little black pepper.
- To assemble the crostini, top each piece of toasted sourdough with some charred chicory, a wedge of goat’s cheese, a slice of pickled onion and a drizzle of dressing.
Nutrition
- 66kcals Calories
- 3.2g (1.2g saturated) Fat
- 2.2g Protein
- 6.6g (3.2g sugars) Carbs
- 0.8g Fibre
- 0.4g Salt
Per toast
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