Healthy Ricotta Crostini

Healthy ricotta crostini are made two ways with less than 6 ingredients and take less than 20 minutes to make.

You are going to love these little healthy ricotta crostini as they are made with nutty and delicious Pepperidge Farm® Harvest Blends bread and simple but delicious fresh ingredients. These two healthy ricotta crostini recipes are so easy that even teenagers can make them and they even helped mom with the easy clean up. You have to love that! My boys are such complete foodies. Not only do they love cooking and EATING, they also love styling food and even taking photos for instagram...

Healthy Ricotta Crostini are the World's Easiest Appetizer

You are going to love how beautiful these little appetizers are going to look on your serving tray with a splash of green, orange-red and white. With all of the spring time weddings, showers, graduation and parties you are going to need some quick and easy appetizers to save the day.

The Italian ricotta and red pepper pesto crostini was a huge hit. We used Pepperidge Farm Harvest Blends seeded grain bread. The seeds in the bread and on the crust made it crunchy and delicious, especially when toasted in the oven. The creamy ricotta topping with the garlic infused roasted red peppers and caramalized onions is going to rock your world.

The Italian ricotta and gremolata topping with lots of fresh lemon zest and parsley was refreshing and delightful and a nice contrast to the rich Italian ricotta and red pepper pesto crostini. Gremolata is a chopped herbed condiment usually made with parsley, lemon zest and garlic.

We enjoyed three delicious breads from Pepperidge Farm. They were the Harvest Blends Seeded, Sprouted and Ancient grain breads. All three breads had a strong wheat flavor balanced out with a touch of sweetness. However, our favorite was the Harvest Blend Seeded bread as loved all of the sunflower seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds on the crust and in the bread. We love that little crunch. These products have limited availability and are currently only available in the Midwest at your local grocer.

The seeded bread was the heartiest of the three according to my boys. As you can see from my photo the word "Try" not to eat is not strong enough language when trying to deter hungry teenage boys from fresh bread sitting on the counter.

Thank goodness I was able to tear from their strong grasps the last few slices of the Harvest Blends Seeded bread to make these delicious healthy ricotta crostinis. We decided to cut the breads into rustic smaller circles so that they are easier to pick up one handed with a glass of red wine in the other. You do not have to go through the bother of cutting your crostini breads into rustic circles but I would suggest that you at least cut into either 2 or 4 triangles so that they are easier to pick up as a tapas instead of one full slice of bread.

The best part about making these quick and easy healthy ricotta crostini is that you can do all the prep in advance. You can make the red pepper pesto and gremolata up to 24 hours in advance and then all you need to do is toast your breads and pile on the toppings and serve. In addition, I highly suggest you make extra gremolata and red pepper pesto as it is delicious on pasta, grilled meats and many others and your meal planning is done for the week.

This post is sponsored by Pepperidge Farm® in conjunction with Blog Meets Brand and I have been compensated for my participation. All opinions are our own.

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Healthy Ricotta Crostini

Healthy ricotta crostini are made two ways with less than 6 ingredients and take less than 20 minutes to make.

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Appetizers/ Snacks

Cuisine: Italian

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 8

Calories: 187kcal

Author: HWC Magazine

Ingredients

Costini

• ▢ 8 slices Pepperidge Farm Harvest Blend Breads
  (we used Seeded blend)
• ▢ ½ cup olive oil
  

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

• ▢ 8 oz roasted red peppers (capisum) in olive oil (reserve the olive oil to make pesto and brush on crostini breads)
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic
  
• ▢ 1 red onion
  medium sliced into rings
• ▢ basil
  optional for garnish

Lemony Gremolata

• ▢ 1 cup parsley - 1 small bunch
  
• ▢ 2 tablespoon lemon zest
  
• ▢ 1 clove garlic
  

Topping for both Crostini Recipes

• ▢ 8 oz ricotta cheese

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut breads into small round rustic circles or cut into 2 or 4 triangles. Brush olive oil on both sides and edges of Harvest Bread Seeded grain or bread of choice. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and crunchy. Set Aside.
• In the mean time while your crostini are baking prepare your roasted red pepper pesto and lemony gremolata.
• Roasted Red Pepper Pesto: In a food processor add the red roasted peppers, 2 tablespoons of oil from the red roasted peppers, garlic, basil and salt and pepper to taste. Combine until smooth. Saute the red onion in a little of the olive oil from the red pepper pesto until caramelised. Set aside.
• Lemony Gremolata: In a food processor add the parsley, lemon zest, garlic and salt and pepper to taste and process until finely chopped.
• Assemble the healthy ricotta crostini. Place a couple of teaspoons of lowfat ricotta cheese on each slice of bread and spread. Add a teaspoon or two of the red pepper pesto on half of the toasted breads with ricotta cheese and top with one slice of caramelised onion. To the other half half of toasted crostini breads with ricotta cheese add a teaspoon or two of the lemony gremolata mixture.
• Garnish the red pepper pesto ricotta crostini with a little fresh basil and a little lemon zest for on top of the lemony gremolata ricotta crostini. Enjoy!

Notes

You can make the red pepper pesto and gremolata in advance and then when you guest arrive, assemble. Even better yet, you can let your guests assemble their own Healthy Ricotta Crostini and leave all the supplies out. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 187kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 423mg | Potassium: 133mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 905IU | Vitamin C: 26mg | Calcium: 87mg | Iron: 1mg

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HWC Magazine