Roasted Beet Crostini

Roast beets ahead—they keep refrigerated for 5 days. Soak cashews at least 4 hours for smooth cream. The contrast of warm crostini with cool toppings is intentional. Assemble just before serving to keep bread crispy.

The beetroot on these crostini has one of the longest and most globally documented histories of any garden vegetable. Wikipedia confirms that beetroot was domesticated in the ancient Middle East, primarily grown for its edible greens, and was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Physical specimens of beet have been found in the Third-Dynasty Saqqara pyramid at Memphis in Egypt, and by the first century BCE both Roman and Jewish texts document the beetroot's presence across the Mediterranean. The Roman food writer Apicius, whose cookbook is among the oldest surviving culinary texts (1st century AD), recorded beets being served in broths and as a side dish with vinegar, mustard, and oil — a preparation not entirely dissimilar to modern roasted beet salads. Ancient Romans also credited beets with aphrodisiac properties; paintings of beetroots were found in Pompeian brothels preserved under Vesuvian ash. The bulbous, deep red root vegetable we recognise today is a relatively recent development: PBS documents the root being cultivated for consumption first recorded in 1542, in either Italy or Germany, as breeders selected for a larger, sweeter taproot rather than the thinner, parsnip-like form of the wild sea beet. By the 19th century Napoleon encouraged large-scale sugar beet cultivation across France as a strategic response to the British naval blockade that cut off imported cane sugar. Crostini — the vehicle for these beets — are one of the oldest forms of Italian party food, thin toasted slices of bread brushed with olive oil and topped with any number of ingredients; the word derives from the Italian crosta (crust), and crostini have been part of the Italian antipasto table since at least the Renaissance.