Brie & Olive Tapenade Crostini

This is a delicious and healthy vegetarian appetizer recipe that is sure to please even the carnivores at your party! You can use a lot of different components to make this – so, be adventurous and experiment with different herbs, olives, and breads. For my version, I started out with a beautiful, pitted Greek olive mix from the olive bar at my local market. You can use a variety of different olives, but do yourself a favor and buy some that have been pitted.
Here’s what I used:
8 oz. pitted Greek olive mix
½ Large yellow bell pepper
3 medium tomatoes, oven roasted and peeled
¼ Cup EVOO
1 Tbs. crushed fresh garlic
¾ Cup whole fresh basil
½ Cup fresh chives
Softened Brie cheese
1 Loaf of sourdough bread
First off, you need to roast your tomatoes. If you’ve never done this before, don’t worry – it’s simple. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. While the oven is heating, blanch your tomatoes whole in a pot of boiling water. After five minutes or so, remove the tomatoes from the hot water and place them in a bowl of ice water. When the tomatoes have sufficiently cooled, remove them from the water and peel. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and place on a baking sheet into the oven. After about an hour, the tomatoes should be fairly dried out. Remove from the oven and crank up the heat to 350 degrees.
While your tomatoes are roasting, you may compose your olive tapenade. In a food processor, add olives, EVOO, yellow bell pepper, and herbs. Pulse blend this mixture to a semi-rough chop. When the desired consistency is achieved, put the tapenade in a sealed container and refrigerate. Puree your roasted tomatoes and stir them into the tapenade. If the mixture is too salty or acidic, add stir in granulated sugar to taste.
Now it’s time to move on to the crostini. In your oven, preheated to 350 degrees, place ¼ “ sourdough slices on a baking sheet. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the bread is nice and crispy. Allow the bread to cool and prepare to assemble the final product.
Take your softened Brie and smear a good amount onto the crostini. Then, take one to two tablespoons of tapenade and smear that on top of the Brie.
Now, the crostinis are ready to eat! I like to add citrus or grapes to my platters, giving guests something sweet to counteract this briny and savory dish. Enjoy!