Roasted Garlicky Tomatoes with Whipped Goat Cheese and Toast

My favorite type of meal is one where there is a lot of simple, rustic food on a platter so everyone can choose what they want to eat. Maybe they want just the tomatoes on toast. Maybe they want to smear the toasted bread with the cheese and leave off the tomatoes. Just make sure you have extra toasted bread to dip in the tomato juices at the bottom of the bowl. Even better, all these components can be served at room temperature.

Pairing this with some good wine, some grapes or fresh berries, and maybe some nuts makes for a very relaxing meal.

Ingredients:

For the tomatoes:

1 cup olive oil
2-3 fat cloves of garlic, minced or run through a press
Coarse salt to taste
Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1 pound cherry tomatoes

For the whipped goat cheese:

4 ounces of goat cheese at room temperature
1/3 to 1/2 cup whipped cream cheese
2 Tablespoons whole milk Greek yogurt
2 Tablespoons freshly chopped chives
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

For the toasts:
6 (1/2 inch thick) slices Italian bread (or any bread you like)
Remaining garlic oil

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, mix the garlic and olive oil together. Let stand for 30 minutes. Strain the garlic pieces out (so they won’t burn when you are roasting and toasting). Reserve the garlic pieces. Add the salt and pepper to the olive oil.

Place the whole cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet. Drizzle with ¼ to ½ cup of your garlic oil.

Brush each side of the bread with more of the garlic oil and place on a separate baking sheet.  Put both the tomatoes and the bread into the oven and cook for 8 minutes. Stir the tomatoes and flip the bread and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.  Check the bread--if it is golden on both sides, remove it. If not, continue toasting it a few more minutes. The tomatoes should pop open and the bread should be lightly golden on each side.

While the tomatoes are roasting and the bread is toasting, whip the goat cheese, cream cheese and yogurt together with an electric mixer or whisk. Stir in the chives, salt and pepper. Spoon into a serving bowl and drizzle with olive oil.

Add your reserved garlic and any extra garlic oil to the tomatoes and pour the tomatoes into a serving bowl. Put the toast and whipped goat cheese on the same platter and dig in!