Sweet Pea Ricotta Crostini

Sweet Pea Ricotta Crostini are a delicious way to celebrate spring peas! Just dollop a lemony ricotta spread onto baguette toasts then top with crisp-tender peas and fresh herbs. 

Why Make This Recipe

• Fresh and healthy: Fresh peas, lemon, and herbs are all healthy ingredients, and as a fresh cheese, ricotta is lower in fat and cholesterol than many other cheeses. 
• Vegetarian Option: I love to have some vegetarian appetizers when I invite friends over, and this one is perfect. It’s tasty, stunning, and perfect for anyone avoiding meat or reducing their meat consumption. 
• Embrace the season: When sweet peas hit the market, I want to use them as much as possible since the season doesn’t last long. So I’m always on the lookout for more fresh pea recipes like this one and my Vegetarian English Pea Salad recipe! 

🥗 Ingredients

• Baguette: You can use whatever kind of toasts or crackers you’d like for this recipe—making the crostini themselves is not required. Or, if you’d like a gluten-free option for this recipe, replace the crostini with gluten-free crackers or toasts. Or serve the ricotta and peas on cucumber slices.
• Ricotta: This dish is even more delicious with a high-quality ricotta cheese, so it’s worth splurging on a good one if you can find it. Avoid ricotta cheeses that include stabilizers or gums in the ingredient list. If you can’t find ricotta, you can replace with another fresh cheese, like cottage cheese, fresh goat cheese, or feta cheese (just reduce the salt in the recipe if using feta).
• Peas: This recipe calls for fresh peas—you may find them called garden peas, English peas, or sweet peas (they’re all the same!). That said, if you are dying for these toasts, and it’s not fresh pea season, you can use frozen peas instead. In that case, you will need about 1-1.5 cups.
• Fresh Herbs: I love to use a combination of dill and lemon thyme in this recipe, but you can really use whatever fresh herbs you have available. Chives, thyme, or chervil would be lovely as well. 

🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions

To make the crostini, cut a baguette into ⅓-inch-thick slices. Line a large sheet pan with aluminum foil, and arrange the baguette slices in one layer. Combine olive oil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to brush a thin layer of the olive oil mixture onto each baguette slice.

Preheat broiler, and place an oven rack about four inches from the heating element. When broiler is hot, put the sheet pan into the oven on that top rack. Broil for only about 1 minute, until the edges of the toasts are browned. Remove sheet pan from oven and set aside to cool.

To prepare the lemon-ricotta spread, whisk together 6 ounces ricotta cheese, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ½ teaspoon lemon zest, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in a small bowl. Set aside. 

Shell peas, and place in a colander. Rinse with cold water, then drain and add to a small saucepan.

Add ¼ cup of water, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Fresh peas do not take long to cook at all, so stir frequently and watch carefully. After only about 1-2 minutes, the peas should be just tender and bright green.

Drain and rinse well in cold water. 

To assemble crostini, add a small dollop of lemon ricotta spread to each baguette toast, then add a spoonful of fresh peas. Press peas down slightly to make sure they don’t roll off. Garnish with lemon zest and/or fresh herbs. 

🧐 Recipe FAQs

👩‍🍳 Expert Tips

You may wonder why this recipe calls for you to broil the crostini rather than bake them. I love baked crostini as well, and if you prefer that method, you can absolutely use it. However, the advantage I see to broiling crostini is that you get a tender inside with crispy edges—the best of both worlds!

They also tend to last a little longer than traditional crostini, which can quickly become completely hard all the way through. The broiled crostini still let you bite through the soft part of the baguette, which is easier on the roof of your mouth.

Fresh peas are the star of this recipe, but peas can go from perfectly bright green and round to darker green and wrinkly very quickly. Watch them as they cook—you are really just blanching them, as it’s likely you won’t need to cook them more than a minute.

When they are bright green and just tender, drain them quickly and stop the cooking process by running them under cold water. Next, it’s best to use them for your crostini as fast as possible—even perfectly cooked peas will start to wrinkle as time passes. 

Other Recipes for Crostini

Crostini are a blank canvas. You can top them with so many different things! If you like the idea of a vegetarian appetizer, you might want to check out my Red Radish Crostini with Lemon Ricotta recipe.

You can also use the same ricotta topping in this recipe, but add different vegetables on top—try roasted squash, mushrooms, asparagus, beets, or peppers for example. For a non-vegetarian option, adding prosciutto to the top of these sweet pea crostini!

Another thing I love to do with crostini in the summer is top them with a smear of Roasted Garlic Aioli or Truffle Aioli, then add halved cherry tomatoes and fresh basil. 

You could also make a sweeter version of crostini by leaving out the lemon in your ricotta spread, topping with peaches or figs, and drizzling with honey. 

Or try this Eggplant Bruschetta, which is similar to a crostini but uses thick Italian bread slices instead.

If you try this Sweet Pea Ricotta Crostini recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me.

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