Strawberry and Mascarpone Cheese Crostini!

For Mother's Day, my daughter and her husband gave me a really sweet Italian surprise!  A beautiful jar of outrageously rich and decadent imported "Fragole" Italian strawberries in syrup.  When I opened up the box I knew immediately that I would use some of the strawberries for an Italian mascarpone crostini.  

But first, I was recently invited to write a guest post on my good friend Liz's blog, "That Skinny Chick Can Bake".  I was so honored to be asked and sent Liz this post that she published on June 15th to her readers.  Not only was this a nice recognition from Liz, but it also gave me a rare opportunity to let both of our readers know how the two of us met . . . way back in the late 60's!  You see Liz has been good friends with my sister Kelly since their childhood in Ames, Iowa where they met in Kindergarten!  Growing up only a few blocks from each other, our families even went to the same church together.  Kelly and Liz's friendship continued through high school, their college years at the University of Iowa, and beyond school to this day!  It was totally bizzare when Liz and I found each other's blogs and realized who we were!  

In my guest post for Liz I thought it would be cool to share some photos of Liz and my sister.  Liz was sweet enough to send me old photos that she had digitized (I've got to do that with my old photos too!), as well as a few recent photos of these two very thin ladies!   I must admit that both Kelly and Liz work out a lot to stay in such great shape.


Mangia!



please click on 'read more' for this delicious recipe and story!

At a high school Halloween party in the 70's,

Liz is in the front row as Ragged Ann and Kelly is the clown sitting next to Liz.

Liz and Kelly today, and yes very skinny!

And now, it's time to chat about this special, sweet strawberry recipe that I prepared:  Balsamic Strawberry Crostini!  Again, I used some of the imported Italian strawberries.  This is a very simple recipe, as some of the best Italian recipes are that I simply sweetened Italian mascarpone cheese with some local honey.  Then I spread this creamy cheese mixture on top of toasted slices of Italian bread that I sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  For the topping, I added fresh strawberries to the Italian strawberries in syrup and added some high quality balsamic vinegar.  Perfecto!

Above:  High quality balsamic vinegar, local bee honey, and mascarpone cheese.

Above:  The "Fragola Fabbri Fruttoe Sciroppo"

Strawberries in Syrup by Fabbri

Sweet strawberries in the syrup topping the mascarpone cheese and cinnamon-sugared crostini!  The cinnamon really adds a nice surprising flavor.

One crostini ready to devour!

Strawberry and Mascarpone Cheese Crostini with Balsamico Vinegar

Italian bread, sliced diagonally

butter

cinnamon

sugar

8 oz. mascarpone cheese, room temperature

2 Tbsp. local honey

fresh strawberries

1 cup Frogole imported Italian strawberries in syrup

1 tsp. balsamic vinegar

cinnamon-sugar mixture

Slice bread diagonally.

Spread butter on both sides of bread.

Sprinkle with mixture of sugar and cinnamon (about 1 cup sugar to 2 tsp. cinnamon to start).

Broil for a few minutes on each side; do not burn.

Set aside.

Blend local honey with mascarpone cheese.

Spread a big dollop on each slice of bread.

Cut up strawberries.

Blend with imported Italian Fragole strawberries in syrup.

Sprinkle with a little bit of cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Blend in 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar (add more to your taste preference).

Top each cheese-covered crostini with the strawberry mixture.

Garnish with mint, basil, and fresh whole strawberries.

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