Spring Crostini

In case you might be planning to have friends or family over this weekend, this is a light and lovely starter to a meal. It is bursting with late Spring flavors like favas, peas, mint and ricotta speckled with fresh chives.

This is easy and beautiful and I hope that you enjoy it!

Spring Crostini, makes 12 crostini

1 baguette, sliced into ¼” thick slices
1 large clove garlic

½ lb of ricotta cheese
¼ cup minced chives
Kosher salt to taste

1Tbs butter
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
kosher salt to taste

1 cup freshly shelled fava beans
1 cup freshly shelled peas
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 Tbs mint, thinly sliced
kosher salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place sliced baguette pieces on a sheet pan and toast in the oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Take the crostini out of the oven and rub each piece with the raw clove of garlic. Set aside.

Mix together the ricotta with the fresh chives and season with salt. Put it back in the refrigerator.

Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil.

Pour in fava beans and cook for about 1 minute, (they will float to the top when they are ready). Pull the fava beans out of the boiling water with a Chinese strainer and plunge them into an ice bath.

Put the peas into the boiling water and cook about 30 seconds or until the peas float to the top. Drain them and plunge them into the ice bath.

Drain the beans and peas of the ice water and pour them into a bowl.

Add the mint and drizzle them with the olive oil and lemon juice. Salt to taste.

In a large sautte pan over medium heat add the butter.

When the butter has melted add the onions and sprinkle with salt.

Cook on low for about 20 minutes or until very soft and tender. When the pan gets dry add a few Tbs of water and then let the liquid cook off, (I did this several times).

When the onions are soft and cooked through with the liquid cooked off, remove them from the heat and set aside.

To assemble the crostini, spread a generous amount of ricotta onto one of the crostini.

Pile on a spoonful of caramelized red onion. Spoon the beans and peas onto the top.