November 28, 2018 — The holiday season is finally upon us! Time for loads of cooking, baking and eating! It truly is a foodie’s favorite time of year.

It can be stressful though, especially if you are hosting a holiday gathering. You have all the pressure of cooking the main dishes and getting the party started with appetizers, of course.

This year, I’m leaning towards crostini as my go-to appetizer. Homemade crostini really doesn’t require a lot of ingredients, prep time is minimal, and the presentation always looks flawless!

This Caramelized Tomato Crostini is sure to please a whole room of family and friends this holiday season! Let's jump into the recipe!

Ingredients:

• French baguette
• Ricotta cheese
• Cherry tomatoes
• Olive Oil
• Balsamic vinaigrette
• Salt & Pepper

What to do:

1. Begin by slicing up your French baguette using a serrated bread knife.
2. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
3. On a greased baking sheet, evenly arrange the pieces of sliced bread. Brush on some olive oil onto each piece of bread so that it gets golden when baking. Also, add salt and pepper.
4. Bake in the oven for approximately 5-7 minutes or until the bread becomes golden in color.
5. Remove them from the oven and let them cool before adding toppings.
6. Next step is caramelizing the tomatoes. Slice them in half and place on a separate, greased baking sheet.
7. Add salt, pepper, and oil onto your tomatoes. Most importantly, sprinkle on some sugar so that they will caramelize.
8. Bake these in the oven for around 7-10 minutes or until they have slightly shriveled up and the sugar has melted into a glaze.
9. Once everything has cooled, spread the Ricotta cheese onto your crostini and then top with two cherry tomatoes.
10. Drizzle on some balsamic vinaigrette for some extra flavor.

The best thing about this recipe is that you can make the crostini up to 48 hours ahead of time and store in an air-tight container! It’ll save you some valuable minutes before your guests arrive.

Hope you all enjoy!