Cervelat Crostini
Apparently you can make anything out of cervelat, Switzerland's national sausage. Although I think its most perfect form is grilled, with mustard, I am not adverse to using it as often as possible in all manner of dishes.
Recently Cervelat: Die Schweizer Nationalwurst, a cookbook devoted to the people's sausage was published. Cervelat cordon bleu? Cervelat curry? Cervelat in your fondue? It's all in there. It's a gorgeous book, with history and with recipes by Beat Caduff and text by Peter Krebs.
Here's a version of one of the recipes from the book, perfect for an Apéro, as an appetizer, or as a light dinner with salad.
dash of oil
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 sprigs rosemary, chopped
pinch salt and pepper
4 tomatoes, chopped
3 cervelat (or other similar sausage), peeled and cut into small pieces
2 shots cognac
a crusty baguette or crackers, to serve
basil leaves, to decorate
Fry the onions and garlic in the oil until translucent. Add rosemary, salt and pepper.
Add chopped tomatoes to the pan and cook for a few minutes. Then add the cognac.
Put the chopped cervelat in a medium bowl. Pour the warm tomato mixture over top and stir together.
While the mixture is still warm, either use an immersion blender, or add the mixture to a food processor and blend until you get a uniform mixture.
Spread this on crackers or toasted baguette and decorate with basil leaves.
- You could use any similar processed sausage for this dish.
- If you have a powerful food processor handy, you would probably get a much smoother result. The immersion blender left it a bit chunky (as you can see below).
- To toast the baguette, arrange pieces on a baking tray, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic powder, and bake at 200C / 400F / gas mark 6 until golden.
