Blue cheese-olive crostini Photo Susie Iventosch

This appetizer is a family favorite and one that my husband's mom, Dolores Iventosch, taught me to make. I think she made it for many years prior to my first introduction, which was back in the late 1990s, when she prepared a few hundred for my father-in-law's 50th class reunion from Berkeley High School.
The combination of melted blue cheese and olives was an immediate hit with me! She had hundreds of these prepared and frozen, in advance of the cocktail party they hosted as part of the weekend festivities.
We recently served it for my father-in-law's 85th birthday celebration and the family enjoyed it with such fond memories of Grandma and her wonderful repertoire of recipes!
She used to cut rounds from slices of white and whole wheat bread as the base, but with all of the wonderful local bakeries, we now make it "crostini" style with slices of freshly-baked baguette.
I hope you enjoy this special treat as much as we have over the years! It is also great served alongside pasta in lieu of bread and butter.

(each recipe makes about 16 crostini)

INGREDIENTS

1/2 baguette, sliced into 1/4-inch slices
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped Manzanilla olives, stuffed with pimientos
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1-2 tablespoons yogurt-based blue cheese dressing (bottled)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place baguette slices on baking sheet. Mix olive oil with black pepper and brush on tops of baguette slices.

Bake bread for 5-7 minutes, until slightly crunchy on edges, but still soft in the middle. Remove from oven and set aside.

In a bowl, mix olives, blue cheese and dressing. Spread on tops of toasts. Bake again at 400 degrees, for approximately 10 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.

Serve hot!

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