How to Make Serrano Ham Crostini

Yields: 30 crostini

Preparation time: 2 hours

Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients needed to make Serrano Ham Crostini:

• 1 sourdough baguette, sliced diagonally into ½’’ slices and toasted
• 4 oz Serrano ham, thinly sliced
• ½ bunch fresh mint leaves
• 4 oz aged Manchego cheese, shaved
• ½ cup quince paste
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Cooking instructions for Serrano Ham Crostini:

• Fill a small saucepan with water and bring it to a boil over high flame.
• Plop in ice cubes into a water batch and pour in water; set aside.
• Drop the mint leaves into the boiling water and blanch them quickly for 10 secs.
• Transfer them immediately into the water batch and drain them out onto a kitchen towel; blot them dry and dump them into a blender.
• Drizzle olive oil into it and blitz them into a smooth puree; set it aside for a couple of hours to let the blend steep in oil.
• Tip it into a fine-mesh sieve and strain it into an air-tight container; seal and keep it aside until necessary.
• Place a rack in the middle position of the oven and warm it up to 400 degrees F and spread a sheet of parchment paper across a baking sheet.
• Place the ham slices on top of the lined baking sheet, in a single layer and toast them in the oven for about 20 minutes or until they turn crispy golden brown.
• Take them out of the oven and set aside until cool enough to handle.
• Crush them into small bits and keep aside.
• To make the crostini, smear a heaping tsp of quince paste across each toasted bread slice and pile up the ham on top.
• Top it up with cheese shavings and add a lashing of mint-infused oil over them.
• Arrange them on a large serving platter and serve right away.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Last Updated on March 1, 2013 by