Quick canapé crostini

Description
These really easy canapés have saved the day, not only when people drop by my house unannounced but also when I fancy a quick snack myself of an evening. It is great to get creative with these, see what it is your cupboard and fridge and experiment with what works.
Ingredients
- 1 baguette
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 large ripe tomatoes
- extra virgin olive oil
- small handful basil and mint leaves
- pinch sugar (optional)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 100g/3½oz canned cannellini beans
- 2 slices prosciutto
- small handful of wild rocket
- 100g/3½oz rindless soft goats’ cheese
- 2 fresh figs
- small handful of mint leaves
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- honey, for drizzling
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
- Trim the ends of the baguette and cut it into diagonal slices about 2cm/1in thick. Place on a large baking sheet, drizzle with oil and bake for 7-8 minutes.
- For the tomato, basil and mint variation, roughly chop the tomatoes and place in a small bowl. Drizzle a little oil over, rip up the basil and mint leaves and add them along with salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Toss everything together.
- For the white bean variation, put the cannellini beans in a small bowl, add a good drizzle of oil, seasoning and then mash roughly with a fork. Cut the slices of prosciutto in half.
- Finally, for the goats’ cheese variation, mash the goats’ cheese with a fork in a small bowl and season, to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cut the figs into eight pieces.
- Remove the crostini from the oven. They should be just crisp. Cut the garlic clove in half and rub the cut edge all over their tops.
- Now to assemble, simply spoon the tomato mixture onto eight of the crostini.
- Arrange the rocket on eight more and dollop the mashed cannellini beans on top. Lightly scrunch the prosciutto up and arrange on top of each one.
- Finally, spread the goats’ cheese over the remaining eight crostini, arrange a couple of pieces of fig on top of each, scatter the mint leaves over and drizzle with a little balsamic and honey.
- Arrange the crostini on a large serving platter or cake stand and serve.