BLT Crostini with Boursin Cheese

Great Chile Day, Year Nine. Seventy pounds this year — up from sixty, because the restaurant grows and the tradition grows with it. The roast at Rivera's, on the commercial char-broiler, the full crew: Tomás, Maria, Chris, Daniel, Samantha. And Roberto, who came for the Great Chile Day despite his three-day-a-week schedule, because Great Chile Day is sacred and sacred events override medication schedules and tired bones. Elena drove him. He stood at the char-broiler for the first hour, turning chiles with hands that have turned chiles for forty years, and then he sat in a booth and watched and directed from the leather seat like a general conducting a battle from a command post.

Sofia roasted alongside the crew — the eleventh-year-old at the commercial char-broiler, turning chiles with technique that now rivals Roberto's. Tomás watched her and said to me, quietly: "Chef, she is better than me." I said, "She has a better teacher." He said, "She has two better teachers — you and Roberto." Three generations of chile roasters. The knowledge passes through the hands. The tradition does not require a building. The tradition requires fire and chiles and the willingness to stand in the heat and turn.

Seventy pounds. Forty-five bags. Thirty-five for Rivera's menu (expanded: the green chile stew, salsa verde, chile-cheese cornbread, green chile mac and cheese, a new addition — green chile brisket burnt ends that I developed this summer and which are the single best thing I have ever created, the combination of Hatch chiles and brisket bark producing a flavor that is Arizona in a bite). Ten for family — the same distribution, the same Duluth barter economy of chiles for fish. Jim's Hatch chile addiction is now a recognized condition in the Rivera-Johansson household.

After the roast, Roberto sat in the booth and ate a bowl of green chile stew made from this year's chiles — the same stew, the same recipe, but with the new chiles, the chiles he helped roast, the chiles his hands turned. He ate the stew slowly, deliberately, tasting each spoonful. When he finished, he set the bowl down and said, "The chiles are good this year." Good. From Roberto, whose vocabulary for food ranges from "good" to "proper" to silence, "good" is the comfortable middle. The chiles are good. The tradition is good. The fire is good. Everything is good.

School starts next week. Sofia enters sixth grade — middle school. Diego enters third grade. The summer ends. The chiles are bagged. The walk-in is stocked. The fire does not acknowledge the calendar. The fire burns through every season.

After nine hours on our feet — seventy pounds of chiles, forty-five bags, three generations standing at the fire — nobody in that crew wanted to cook another serious thing. Roberto was back in his booth, Elena at his side, Sofia finally sitting still for the first time all day. What we needed was something you could eat standing up, something with crunch and salt and a little richness to close out the heat. These BLT Crostini with Boursin Cheese have become our Great Chile Day wind-down: fast to assemble, impossible to eat just one, and the kind of thing that keeps a tired crew gathered around a table just a little longer than they planned.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 25 min | Servings: 8 (about 24 crostini)

Ingredients

1 French baguette, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds (about 24 slices)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 (5.2 oz) package Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs cheese, softened
6 strips thick-cut bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cups romaine or butter lettuce, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
1 tablespoon fresh chives, minced (optional)

Instructions

Toast the crostini. Preheat oven to 400°F. Arrange baguette slices in a single layer on a baking sheet and brush each lightly with olive oil. Bake 8—10 minutes, flipping once halfway through, until golden and crisp. Remove and let cool slightly.
Cook the bacon. While the crostini toast, cook bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 6—8 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate, let cool, then crumble into rough pieces.
Spread the Boursin. Use a small offset spatula or butter knife to spread a generous layer of softened Boursin cheese onto each toasted crostini round.
Layer the toppings. Top each crostini with a small pinch of sliced lettuce, 2—3 cherry tomato halves, and a pinch of crumbled bacon.
Season and serve. Finish with a light sprinkle of flaky sea salt and black pepper. Garnish with minced chives if using. Arrange on a platter and serve immediately while the crostini remain crisp.

Nutrition (per serving)

BLT Crostini with Boursin Cheese — What We Ate After Seventy Pounds of Chiles