Aside from the serious haters, for blue cheese, life is optimistic and full of oportunities. It can be crumbled over zesty salads, hot pizzas or veg. It can be smashed onto a cracker or a chunk of bread. It can also be mixed into butter to be served atop a sizzling hot steak. And, doesn't being melted into a creamy pasta sauce or blended into a dip sound divine? I dare say I never thought I could envy being a chunk of cheese until this very moment.
This dish is rich and creamy and full of flavor, but when paired with the delicateness of the thinly-sliced crostini and a salad of simply-dressed bitter greens with honey, it becomes light and only a slightly sinful dish. But you won't hate yourself after you hoovered it down. Not. One. Bit.
Crostini with Blue Cheese, Radicchio & Honey
serves 2
1 baguette (good quality, can be day old)
1 1/2 T butter
2 t chopped chives
8 t blue cheese dressing
2 t honey
40 g very thinly shaved/sliced radicchio lettuce
40 g very thinly shaved/sliced endive lettuce
2 t red wine vinegar
2 t extra virgin olive oil
s&p
Dressing
yields about 1 cup
75 g blue cheese (mild & creamy version like a Saint Agur or a Danish blue)
25 g crème fraîche
50 g mayonnaise
1 g pressed garlic (1 small piece)
big pinch maldon sea salt
fresh ground pepper
1/2 t Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t lemon zest
1/2 t lemon juice
1/2 t red wine vinegar
Thinly slice 8 crostini rounds 1/4 of an inch thick (about 1/2 cm). You will want to heat up a pan with some melted butter and on medium heat, cook the bread on both sides until golden brown. Remove to cool.
Make your blue cheese dressing by placing all of the ingredients into a kitchen machine and pulse all of the ingredients together until chunky or smooth, you can choose. If you do not own a kitchen machine of some sort, you can put all of the ingredients into a bowl and mash it up like you are mad at it.
Thinly slice both lettuces. Place them in a mixing bowl with the salt, pepper, vinegar and oil. Mix and set aside. Spread 1 t of the blue cheese dressing on each one of the crostini's. Plate 4 of them on each plate. Set half of the salad in the middle each plate. Sprinkle with the chives and drizzle 1 t of honey per plate. Serve immediately or the crostini will start to lose its crunch.