As much as I love sweets and pastry and pies and cookies, I love savoury food.
I don’t really like cooking though, so when I make savoury dishes they are usually quite simple. I love sitting down with friends and making share plates of blue cheese, cheddar and brie, with some quince paste, black olive tapenade and chunky chilli pesto. A few glasses of wine and some crackers or these homemade croutons and my evening is sorted.
This baked artichoke dip is a very simple, very delicious appetizer (or if you love it as much as I do, it is a very simple, very delicious meal) that goes beautifully with all that cheese and wine I love.
On New Year’s Day, this hot dip and homemade croutons were lunch for my family, along with a couple of glasses of cider and some cheeses. It was nice and simple, quick to prepare and left me with more time to sit and eat.
The combination of hot artichokes, creamy mayonnaise, cheesy, stringy parmesan and crunchy croutons in this dip really are heaven. I suggest you go and bake some.
Oh, and it was totally fantastic with my cheddar cheese crackers, too.
HOT BAKED ARTICHOKE DIP WITH HOMEMADE CROUTONS
For the croutons
1 baguette
olive oil/olive oil spray
sea salt
To make the croutons, preheat the oven to 120 C.
Slice up the baguette thinly. Arrange the slices kind of standing up in a 12-hole muffin tray, with 2 or 3 slicer per hole. Spray or drizzle the baguette slices with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake for 20 minutes at 120 C. Increase the temperature to 150 C and bake for a further 5 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare your artichoke dip.
For the hot baked artichoke dip
2 x 400g cans artichokes
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 cup whole egg mayonnaise
3 tbsp breadcrumbs
1-2 tbsp olive oil
Preheat the oven to 180 C. Drain the artichokes and chop them finely.
In a large bowl, combine them with the parmesan and mayonnaise. Scoop the mixture into a baking dish or individual ramekins.
Separately, combine the breadcrumbs and the olive oil. Sprinkle them evenly over the dip.
Bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot. Feeds 4-6.