Most of my cooking adventures are well planned, with a timeline that goes backwards to gauge when I should start said adventure.  Unfortunately, there are a few times that the adventures are unfolding just fine until I discover that step 2 takes an hour instead of 15 minutes, or I forgot that something else was in the oven and so I can’t swap it out.  At these times, a little snack is all we need to get from “oh my goodness I am so hungry that I’m only seeing spinning wheels” to “oh hey, I’m feeling just fine, you take as long as you want to get dinner ready!”

This snack was inspired from a starter at a restaurant that we recently discovered near Lincoln Center that seemed oh so fancy, and then I realized that I could easily make it at home since I seem to always have tomatoes and goat cheese (thanks to an amazing goat cheese sale at the grocery store) and a couple of delectable, tasty olive oils.

It can be used for dinner party starters, cocktail parties, or just that lazy Saturday afternoon around 3 when brunch has worn off but dinner is far off.  The best is that you can play with the ingredients and add any kind of herbs or differently flavored olive oils and still get good results, so experiment!

Ingredients

French baguette, cut in 1/2″ slices
2-3 tomatoes (any will work, I like the Roma ones for this)
Goat cheese
Olive oil
salt and pepper for taste
basil (optional – I didn’t use it in the photo, but it would be a perfect touch)

Directions

Preheat your oven 200 degrees F.  Line a tray with foil and place your bread on the tray and stick it in the oven even as it is warming up.  Depending on how toasty you like your bread, leave it in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Once the bread looks toasty, take the tray out of the oven, and drizzle olive oil on the bread slices.  Take about a tablespoon of goat cheese (I like to be generous and use large chunks of it) and spread on the bread.  Slice the tomatoes and press slices into the goat cheese.

Drizzle with a little more olive oil if you wish, and sprinkle some pepper on all the arrangements.  Serve immediately!