Mini Kalamata and Cheese Bruschetta

Ingredients:

7 to 9 slices white sandwich bread
1 tablespoon olive oil
125ml fresh parsley, loosely packed and divided
175ml pitted kalamata olives, drained
1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, pressed and divided
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper, divided
250g mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
Additional fresh parsley leaves (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

2. Using a 4cm biscuit cutter, cut 36 rounds from the bread slices, avoiding the crusts. Place the bread rounds on a baking sheet and brush with oil.

3. Bake for eight to ten minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the toast rounds from the sheet and place on a cooling rack.

4. Meanwhile, use a pair of scissors to snip the parsley in a medium-sized bowl. Place half of the parsley in a smaller bowl and set aside.

5. Finely chop the olives. Extract the juice from the lemon, and measure out 22ml.

6. Add the olives, juice, one pressed garlic clove and a quarter teaspoon of the black pepper to the parsley in the large bowl. Mix well.

7. Add the remaining pressed garlic clove, remaining black pepper, cheese and salt to the batter bowl. Mix until smooth.

8. Fill the toast rounds with the cheese mixture. Then, spoon a scant teaspoon of the olive mixture onto each toast round.

9. Pipe the remaining cheese mixture over olive mixture on the rounds. Garnish with additional fresh parsley leaves from the small bowl, if desired.

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