Do you have a party or get-together this weekend? No matter your answer, I think you should make these crostini. I made them for my family last night for dinner (with a side salad) and they were delicious.

There’s nothing not to like about a crostini. You have crusty bread with some sort of toppings. The variations are pretty widespread. This one had creamy bean pesto and super sweet roasted tomatoes. YUM.

I sliced a loaf of italian bread that got nice and crispy in the oven, it was the perfect base for this recipe. Next was the pesto. It’s not a traditional pesto, it has a creamy twist from the beans, which gave it hummus vibes to me. It was super fresh with the basil and had a slight nuttiness from the almonds. I made it dairy free by adding some nutritional yeast (instead of parmesan) and it gave a really nice cheesy flavour. I had leftover pesto which I will definitely be using as a dip for veggies or as a spread on sandwiches.

The pesto on bread would be good on its own, but the tomatoes make it better. Roasting the tomatoes brings out so much sweetness and they burst when you bite into one. It’s the perfect little topping for this dish.

This recipe reminded me about the crostini I made back at the beginning of this cookbook challenge – recipe #6 (link here). They had goat cheese and roasted strawberries. The sweetness went so well with the creamy and crunchy, it was just a symphony of textures and flavours. It was the exact same experience with this recipe today. The green and red also looked very pretty together.

I really liked this recipe. If you wanted to make them a little simpler, you could substitute hummus for the homemade bean pesto. You definitely cannot skip the roasted tomatoes though, must make them 🙂