Caprese Crostini

You ask for the perfect appetiser, I deliver. This is caprese crostini: Rustic ciabatta bread baked until crisp, topped with melty mozzarella, herb-roasted tomatoes, and fresh basil.

Here at Oh My Veg, a big part of my job is taking food photos. But boy, is it hard! Firstly, because I have to wait before actually tucking in (torment!), but also because sometimes my photos don’t capture the true deliciousness, and that’s such a disappointment.

As soon as I took my first bite of these caprese crostini, I knew they were among the best things I’d ever tasted. These photos simply don’t do that justice.

I do loooooove a good caprese recipe. They’re stacking up. So far, I’ve shared caprese flatbreads, caprese risotto, caprese toast, and caprese sandwiches with pesto with you.

While all these recipes are inspired by Italy’s most iconic salad, insalata caprese, these unassuming crostini turn it up a notch.

It all starts with rustic slices of crisp-baked bread topped with creamy, melted mozzarella. So far, so good. Then it’s topped with roasted tomatoes literally bursting with intensely sweet, savoury, umami-packed flavour. I’m talking roasted garlic and tomato soup levels of tangy, tempting tastiness. Tomatoes. With a capital T.

I throw in a few aromatic dried herbs with the tomatoes for good measure, and top things off with a customary sprig of basil.

The result is an explosion of flavours and textures. It draws you in. You can’t stop eating. I took a second caprese crostini, then another, then another … you get the gist.

Caprese crostini are perfect served as canapés, but you’ve got to be careful not to eat so many that you’re too full to finish the rest of your meal!

🍅 Ingredient Notes from the Kitchen

You can almost count the ingredients needed for this caprese crostini on one hand — this is the epitome of a simple Italian recipe that’s uncomplicated, yet makes for excellent eating.

The ingredients are available to buy from any large store, but you might find them already stocked in your pantry. Let’s dive deeper:

• Ciabatta bread is my favourite for making little homemade crostini toasts. It’s a rustic Italian bread with large air pockets (ideal for catching flavour!), a soft crumb, and a crusty exterior. You could also use a French baguette to similar effect. Alternatively, as a shortcut, use store-bought crostini.
• Olive oil, once brushed onto the bread, helps it bake up to a beautiful crisp. As a bonus, the bread also soaks up its fantastically fruity flavour.
• Mozzarella is the first of our caprese elements. It’s fresh, mild, and creamy. Either water-packed fresh mozzarella or firmer pizza mozzarella will do.
• Tomatoes are the second in our caprese trio and the most important. I’ve used a generous mix of gorgeously sweet Italian San Marzano plum tomatoes and vine-ripened orange cherry tomatoes. I recommend using the most flavourful tomatoes you can; it makes all the difference. Smaller tomatoes are best, as you can roast them up whole (larger beefsteak tomatoes tend to be too big for the crostini).
• Dried herbs, including oregano, basil, and tarragon, take these caprese crostini to the next level.
• Fresh basil is the final member of our caprese trio! You can use store-bought or garden-grown. Any Italian sweet or Genovese basil is ideal.

Adapting for Allergies and Dietary Requirements

This caprese crostini recipe is 100% vegetarian, nut-free, soy-free, and alcohol-free.

To make the canapés vegan, swap traditional Italian mozzarella for a vegan alternative such as GreenVie (available on Amazon) or MozzaRisella (also available on Amazon). Large grocery stores in the U.K. also stock vegan grated mozzarella, with Violife and I Am Nut OK being two popular picks.

You could also make homemade vegan mozzarella, if you’re feeling industrious!

To make caprese crostini gluten-free, head to your local supermarket’s free-from section. In the U.K., Schar is at the forefront of offering gluten-free ciabatta rolls, and gluten-free baguettes are even more accessible.

🌶️ Fun Variations and Ingredient Substitutions

There are two kinds of cooks: the rule-follower, who sticks to the recipe exactly, and the chaos-maker, who is practically incapable of following a recipe, preferring to get creative in the kitchen.

No shade. There’s space for both — I actually recommend that you follow my recipe the first few times (especially if you’re a beginner cook), then you can mix things up. Cooking is meant to be fun, after all.

Here are a few variations that have gone down a treat with friends and family:

• Add a touch of spice by rubbing the crostini crackers with chilli oil (either a good Chinese chilli crisp or a more classic Italian chilli-infused olive oil) before baking. Or, alternatively, add a quarter teaspoon of dried chilli flakes to the tomatoes before you roast them up.
• Highlight the basil by drizzling fresh homemade pesto over the caprese crostini as a finishing touch. If you have a nut allergy, try my pumpkin seed pesto or pesto without pine nuts.
• Fan of balsamic? I pair tangy, caramel-sweet balsamic glaze with many of my other caprese recipes, including caprese flatbreads. It marries with the natural sweetness of tomatoes and adds an edge to the creamy richness of mozzarella.
• Add more vegetables by roasting sweet peppers, artichokes, courgettes (zucchini), or aubergine (eggplant) along with your tomatoes.

🧑‍🍳 How to Make Caprese Crostini

It takes just six easy, straightforward, and completely beginner-friendly steps to make these caprese crostini.

If you’re a visual learner, you can follow along with these step-by-step photos (straight from my kitchen):

🪄 Tips From the Kitchen

I always test my recipes multiple times before sharing them here. Here are a few easy-to-implement suggestions I’ve learnt along the way that really do make all the difference:

• When recipes are simple, the quality of ingredients is crucial. Please, don’t skimp out.
  • In-season tomatoes always taste best. Use homegrown, heirloom, or proper Italian tomatoes. Avoid basic “salad tomatoes”.
  • Use good-quality fruity olive oil. A good rule of thumb I’ve learnt is to avoid olive oil packaged in plastic bottles. Opt for glass-packaged, and if possible, use olive oil that originates from the country of the recipe you’re cooking (for example, I’d prefer Italian olive oil over Greek here).
  • Buy proper mozzarella — pre-shredded cheese is coated in anti-caking agents, which do impact the final taste. Always opt for fresh water-packed mozzarella or low-moisture plastic-wrapped pizza mozzarella.
• After you’ve finished roasting the tomatoes, don’t leave that gorgeous herb-infused olive oil sitting in the baking tray. Drizzle it over the crostini for an extra dose of delish.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

🍝 Serving Suggestions

Caprese crostini are a crowd-pleasing, versatile appetiser. It’s a mouth-watering way to start any Italian meal — whether you’re aiming for sophisticated or homely.

Start your meal with a platter of these crostini to share — or one or two on individual plates — and then follow it up with light, refreshing pasta dishes such as spaghetti al pesto, mushroom aglio e olio, or broccolini pasta.

Serve a bright and peppery arugula spinach salad on the side, then an easy (yet impressive) dessert to finish on a sweet note. I suggest peach puff pastry tarts or mascarpone, almond, and blackberry cake!

Caprese crostini also make for a fabulous canapé option for entertaining and parties.

Serve them on a large platter with extra mozzarella pearls or basil leaves on the side. For a touch more elegance, garnish with edible flowers — nasturtiums, pansies, or marigolds would look spectacular.

You can also mix and match crostini recipes for an assorted platter. Think crostini ai funghi, caramelised onion crostini, burrata crostini, or bruschetta crostini.