Smashed Avocado-Chile Tartines

So it turns out “tartine” is a fancy word for a French, open faced sandwich, but if you’d rather refer to it as toast, I won’t judge. I mean really, is it tart-TEEN? Tart-teen-AY? Pretentious French ass holes. However you say it, these things are pretty dang good. Personally, I would just serve them with a side salad or a nice soup to make a perfect lunch or light weeknight meal. Unfortunately, I have a picky boyfriend (shh, don’t tell him I said so) who, when told the menu for the evening, asked something along the lines of, “Sounds great — with steak?” Um, no.

So, go out and buy yourself some avocados and a loaf of bread. Then go for a run tomorrow, because if you’re anything like me, you won’t stop at just one “serving size”.

One more thing to note: the bread in this recipe is supposed to be grilled. Like, on the BBQ. As in, turn on the grill, heat up the grill, clean the grill, and watch expensive propane burn away, all for a few slices of bread. If you’re one of those annoying, over-achiever types, grill away. If you’re like me, broil them. No one will be the wiser.

Recipe:

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp red pepper chile flakes plus extra for sprinkling
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed (skins removed)
• 1/2 loaf ciabatta or other crusty Italian bread, sliced diagonally to maximize surface area (the fancy word for that is “bias”), about 1/2-inch thick
• 2 ripe avocado, pitted, removed from skin, and cubed
• 1 tbsp fresh lime juice — I bought a lime just for this recipe, and forgot to add it (if you know me at all, this is no surprise). Didn’t notice a difference, but throw it in there if you want to
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven (or the grill, if you’re one of the aforementioned, overachiever types).
2. In a small saute pan, heat the oil, chile flakes, and garlic over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes, or until the chile flakes and garlic start sizzling.  Turn the heat to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes – do not let the garlic burn.  If you’re like me and burned the garlic, dump out saute pan and start over. If not, remove from the heat and pour the oil through a mesh sieve into a medium bowl.  Don’t have a mesh sieve? Me neither. Get creative. Discard the garlic and chile flakes and set the oil aside for 5 minutes.
3. Brush both sides of the bread slices lightly with the oil.  Grill or broil both sides of the bread until they are lightly browned and toasted around the edges – this takes about 3 minutes per side. Make sure to broil on low so it doesn’t burn.
4. While the bread grills, in a medium bowl, smash the avocado with, lime juice, about 1/4 tsp salt and a sprinkle of pepper with a fork — as you can see from my pictures, I left mine a little chunky, but you can mash it more if that’s your preference.  Stir in 2 tsp of the chile-oil.
5. Divide the avocado mixture between the grilled bread slices, drizzle with a little extra chile-oil and sprinkle the tops with extra chile flakes before serving.  Serve the avocado at room temperature while the bread is still warm from the grill.
6. Gorge yourself.

Yields about 3-4 servings.

Slightly adapted from: Smells Like Home