Tuscan crostini or chicken liver & veal spleen on toast
( Crostini alla Toscana )

Tuscan crostini recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Slice veal spleen.
• - Chop capers, carrot and onions.
• - Put chopped ingredients, olive oil and butter in a pan and let all fry slightly on low heat, stirring.
  Add veal spleen and chicken livers, stir, 1 to 2 minutes and, finally, pour in wine.
  Add also peeled tomatoes after squashing them with a fork.
  Season to taste with salt and pepper and continue cooking until all cooking juice is well reduced, 20 minutes.
• - Meanwhile clean parsley, wash and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
  You have to cut it finely into your sauce some minutes before turning off the stove. Help yourself with kitchen scissors.
• - Let your sauce cool and then purée.

Just before serving

• - Spread your sauce on the slices of toasted bread.
  Your crostini are ready to serve.

Note

Tips

• - You can choose a loaf, a baguette or a sandwich loaf for your crostini.
• - You can prepare the sauce in advance, the day before. But remember to chill it. In any case you have to use the sauce at room temperature.
• - I prepare this sauce in another way. I put all ingredients plus 1 dried bay leaf in a pan in the same time except parsley and olive oil. So I don’t fry slightly anything, this is useful to protect liver. Some minutes before turning off the stove I add parsley and 1 tablespoon dried chives. I add olive oil only when I turn off the stove. So sauce flavor is better. I use no butter to decrease fat. Eventually you can add other olive oil.

Menu planning

• - Generally, I choose Tuscan crostini planning a menu based only on meat. It is a tasty appetizer that can accompany an assorted platter of salami and cheese even if you want your guests enjoy jam or honey with cheese.
• - I prepare Tuscan crostini for afternoon snack when I have guests, for the fashionable drunch and picnic too. In this case I carry with me ready sauce and baguette.
• - Do you know Italian happy hour? aperitivo is the answer, that it the magic moment of the day to relax with a glass full of wine or cocktail. It can be planned at home too. Tuscan crostini is a fantastic choice to pair to your preferred red wine or cocktail. I prepare olives and other appetizers too. Below the links useful for you.

Useful links for this recipe

• - I begin with the links to international cocktails and finger food to plan your happy hour.
• - I think you could be interested in seasoning olive how-to. There are two recipes I love very much: olives, Italy-style and olives, Madrid-style.
• - I close my link list with the page my husband and I dedicated to Tuscany. If you like Tuscan cuisine and wines you could find a lot of ideas there.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Tuscan crostini or chicken liver & veal spleen on toast "?

Surely the least problematic choice is a still, medium-bodied red wine from the territory. So a Tuscan wine that goes well with any meat and cheese is perfect according to my husband and me. In your special occasions choose Brunello di Montalcino and, contrary to what I wrote before, abound with butter!