Pesto Crostini with Goat Cheese

I instinctively think of pesto as a summer food, a great use for a bumper crop of basil, topped with fresh tomatoes. The other day I came across this tasty recipe on the blog Cooking with Amy, and I was reminded there are many good uses for pesto when the weather turns cold.

One simple use for pesto this time of year, as those holiday parties start popping onto our schedules (earlier every year it seems), is the following recipe for Pesto Crostini with Goat Cheese:

1 batch of pesto (click for my recipe)
1 baguette, sliced into rounds 1 inch thick
4 ozs. goat cheese
grape tomatoes (optional), quartered
olive oil spray

Set oven to broil. Spread aluminum foil over baking tray. Spread baguette rounds on the tray (depending on size of baguette you should have enough for 2 or 3 trays). Spray with olive oil to lightly coat. Put tray in oven AND DON'T GO ANYWHERE. Turn that oven light on and keep an eye on things, it only takes a few minutes for the crostini to begin to brown, at which point you should remove them from oven. (alternatively, you can go off and do something else, and expect a visit from your friendly local fire people).

Let the crostini cool for a few minutes. Spread a thin layer of goat cheese over crostini, then spread the pesto over the goat cheese. Top with the optional tomatoes if using.

Helpful Tips

• Based on my taste, I go light on the goat cheese and heavy on the pesto. For a crowd, it's a good idea to vary how much of each you put on in the first batch--see which get eaten up and take into consideration when making round 2!
• Topping half of the crostini with the tomatoes, and intermingling them on the serving tray with the ones that just have the pesto, makes for a nice presentation for a Christmas party.
• If you're serving a finicky crowd, you might want to make a few without the goat cheese. For some reason, not everyone likes chevre!
• I recommend the grape tomatoes as they tend to be pretty good through the fall & winter. Other types of tomato or roasted red peppers also work nicely.