At the Food and Wine Classic [1], I watched Jose Andres [2] 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, .
Original recipe by PartySugar [3]
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 [4]) 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.
Print recipe with images [4] | without images [4]
- Photo 1 [6]
- Photo 2 [7]
- Photo 3 [8]
- Photo 4 [9]
- Photo 5 [10]
- Photo 6 [11]
- Photo 7 [12]
- Photo 8 [13]
- Photo 9 [14]
- Photo 10 [15]
- Photo 11 [16]
- Photo 12 [17]
- Photo 13 [18]
- Photo 14 [19]
- Photo 15 [20]
- Photo 16 [21]