Roasted Red Pepper and Almond Crostini

This works well as finger food for a party, or possibly as a side for a large dinner. (Come to think of it, I bet you could sprinkle it with some cheese, heat it up, and make mini-pizzas.) Regardless, it went over well at my party, and I found it simple to make.

Ingredients: 

1 baguette, sliced

E.V.O.O

2 red bell peppers

3 minced garlic cloves

3/4c almonds (I used pre-sliced.)

2 tbsps tomato paste

3/4 tsp paprika

3/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

After you lay out the baguette slices on the baking sheet, you should brush them with a coat of olive oil and bake them for about 5 minutes until they take on a nice golden brown color. When they're done, you set them aside to cool.

Turn your oven on to broil and adjust the cooking rack accordingly. Cut the ends off the peppers and slice the peppers into flat panels. Put these with the skin side up on a broiler pan and broil for about ten minutes. When they're done, you're going to set them aside in a bowl. Once they're cool, you're going to peel the skin off of them so that you're left with just the mushy insides. 

In a skillet with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, heat the almonds and garlic. You want your garlic to start coloring and the almonds to begin to darken. It should take 4-6 minutes. You might want to add the almonds in a couple minutes after the garlic. 

No. It's cool blogger, I like having a strange sideways pic for no reason.

Then you put the pepper mush, the almonds/garlic, tomato paste, paprika, salt, and cayenne pepper into a food processor and blend it until it's still a little chunky. Or, if you don't own a food processor, use your blender like I did. (This is why I strongly suggest using sliced almonds since they're not as thick and easier to chop.)

There's the mush before blending and before the red pepper.

And the mush after blending in the red pepper.

Then you spread this mixture on your bread and enjoy because it's delicious.