At the Food and Wine Classic, I watched Jose Andres make bread chips. He froze a baguette, sliced it superthin with a mandoline, and panfried it until crisp. While Andres topped his with anchovies and other Spanish ingredients, I haven't stopped thinking about this bread chip and wondered how it would translate into a nacho. 
I don't have a mandoline, so I used regular white bread. However, I wish I would have found a way to use paper-thin bread. The final result was more like a cheesy bruschetta than a nacho. When I realized this, I was disappointed, but the classic Italian flavors — mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil — were so delicious that I soon forgot my sadness. I highly recommend you make this scrumptious appetizer, only instead of calling it nachos, simply call it bruschetta! To see what I did, read more.
Original recipe by PartySugar
Ingredients
1 small loaf thinly sliced sourdough bread
1 stick butter
2-3 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
8 ounces mozzarella, grated
2 cups tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 cup homemade or store bought pesto
basil leaves, optional for garnish
Directions
- Cut the bread into triangular pieces, removing crusts.
- Since this was an experiment, I decided to fry some in butter (a la Ryan Scott) and bake some in the oven. For frying, melt one stick of butter with 2-3 peeled garlic cloves in a large pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted add the bread, frying in a single layer. Fry until golden brown 3-4 minutes. Flip and continue to fry for 1-2 more minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Repeat with remaining bread.
- Alternately, for baking, preheat the oven to 375°F. Place the bread triangles in an even layer on a large baking sheet. Bake in the oven until crisp and brown 15-20 minutes.
- When the bread is cool enough to handle spread evenly on a large baking sheet. Season bread generously with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with the cheese, taking care to cover each piece of bread with cheese. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until cheese is melted.
- Remove and transfer cheesy bread triangles to a serving platter. Top each piece of bread with a heaping tablespoon of chopped tomatoes.
- If your pesto is too thick to drizzle, thin with a few tablespoons of olive oil. Drizzle the pesto over the top of the tomatoes. Garnish with basil leaves if desired and enjoy!
Serves 4-6 as an appetizer.
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Coast
Ralph Lauren
Esprit
These look amazing! What a great idea Party!
1this looks so yummy - i'm definitley trying this soon. it has my favorite foods - cheese and bread...
2Another goodie - your basil is big and beautiful.
3looks good. I was thinking maybe you could use those party melba loaves instead to make the bread even thinner and more chip like
4You continue to push the limits of what a nacho can be. This may be the least nacho-y yet, but it's probably my favorite so far.
5Those look really amazing! ....my best mandoline advice? Lurk around home stores waiting for demo deals. I just got a $70 mandoline for $13 bucks just because it was on display in the store. I'm going to try to make bread chips now!!
6it looks so delicious!
7Looks delicious. I wonder if you could cheat with a bag of bagel crisps or melba toast.
8Be glad you dont have a mandoline! They are crazy dangerous to use if you dont know how to use one properly!
9you could just toast the bread and not have to fry it in butter...
10Not frying in butter would be a crime.
11These look delish! I love bread and cheese. Mmmmm.
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