Tartines of grilled peaches, beetroot and blue cheese with a walnut and garlic spread
Summertime tartine
Published originally on my blog on 8 October 2013
Saturdays have been tartine days these past couple of weeks for S and me. We love them, we could practically live on them for the entire summer.
The combinations of different ingredients that you can use to make a tartine are endless and that’s my favorite part about them, but so is the fact that they’re so damn easy and filling. You can have lunch just by eating a couple and you wouldn’t feel like you ate a glorified sandwich.
I used regular peaches for the tartines but the wild (doughnut, Saturn) peaches were even more delicious.
If you put some thought into it, a little care and if your ingredients are seasonal and fresh, then a tartine can be spectacular. Allow me to say that these here were just that. Grilled peach, beetroot and blue cheese tartines with a walnut and garlic spread; they were seriously delicious and I’m not just saying that.
Apart from the obvious freshness and juiciness of the peaches that are in season and that you’d have to be insane not to be all over them, the earthy, mellow sweetness of the beetroot and the sheer scrumptiousness of the soft, rich blue cheese, the secret to these tartines is twofold.
First, the grilling of the peaches that makes them soft and caramelized and charred and kind of smoky, and second, the walnut and garlic spread, a Greek skordalia of sorts, so nutty and aromatic, that gives them an extraordinary depth of flavor.
Along with the crusty grilled bread and the crisp salad leaves there’s a beautiful balance of flavors and textures that make these tartines worthy of making again and again until the peach season comes to its end and you start looking for new and imaginative combinations.
Tartines of Grilled Peaches, Beetroot and Blue Cheese with Walnut and Garlic Spread
Use good bread otherwise there’s no point in making a tartine. No matter what you put on top of it, if the bread is not right, i.e. with a dense crumb and a crusty crust, then you got a failure on your hands. I used multi-grain bread.
Enjoy your tartines with a nice dry red wine such as a Beaujolais or a Syrah.
