So if you have followed my travels, I still have some Tuscan recipes I learnt which I promised to post. Here is one for you today. It is extremely easy to make and great for your dinner party.

When we were in Tuscany, crostini together with Panzanella, a refreshing Tuscan summer bread salad are always served as antipasti.

Stracchino is a fresh very creamy soft cheese, it has a short shelf life which has to be consumed within a week or so, pay attention to the expiry date. I was amazed with the creaminess of this cheese as it is nothing like the normal cream cheese we normally use namely mascarpone or Philly cream cheese. Stracchino is found commonly used as one of the fillings in Piadina, Italian flatbread which goes well with arugula (rocket) and parma ham. An excellent alternative Italian street food to mass production unhealthy pizzas.

To make the stracchino & sausage crostini, you need the following:

• 2 fresh baguettes
• 1 pack stracchino cheese
• 2 fresh italian pork sausages (or the best quality pork sausages from your butcher)
• a small bunch of chives (Dutch: bieslook; German: Schnittlauch), finely chopped
• pinches of freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. Remove the sausage casing and transfer the pork sausage filling into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the stracchino cheese in the mixing bowl and mix well with the sausage.
4. Since the pork sausage is already flavored, you will not need much seasonings at all except a little freshly ground pepper.
5. Add in the finely chopped chives, mix into the sausage cheese mixture, and set aside.
6. Cut the baguette into slices diagonally and spread the cheese mixture onto them.
7. Line a piece of baking paper on the oven rack, line the baguette flat on the oven rack and place in the oven for about 10-12 mins until golden brown on top. Bake in 2 batches if necessary.
8. Remove from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before serve.

Note:

If you have fresh plain sausages, you can add pinches of ground fennel seeds, sweet paprika, clove of crushed garlic to make it more like Italian sausage.

Enjoy and thanks to Peter for sharing this great recipe with me ; )

And before I finished a few more pictures for you, oh it makes me wanting to go back to Tuscany already….

Medievalcity Lucca, Piazza Anfiteatro

Picture taken at Vinci, Leonardo da Vinci’s Birthplace. Museum of Leonardo is definitely not to be missed.

Olive tree outside Leonardo’s birthplace

My other posts on our Tuscan trip:

• Tuscany Part 1: Garfagnana & Tuscan risotto recipe
• Tuscany Part 2: Cooking with Peter & Ann and baked zucchini and zucchini blossoms