Dirty Martini Toast

Basically, everything you want sitting next to your martini… now on toast.

This Dirty Martini Toast is salty, briny, crispy, creamy, and honestly tastes like the perfect martini hour snack turned into dinner. The toast gets pan-fried in beef tallow until deeply golden and crisp, then topped with whipped blue cheese ricotta and a smashed olive salad packed with citrus, herbs, vermouth, and olive brine. Finish it with fried shallots and a drizzle of olive oil, and suddenly your martini has a soulmate.

• 1-2 thick slices of sourdough bread

• 1 tbsp beef tallow

• 1 cup green olives, smashed with the side of a knife or your muddler!

• 1 garlic clove, very thinly sliced

• Zest of 1 lemon

• Zest of 1 orange

• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

• 1 tbsp olive brine

• 1 tbsp dry vermouth

• Pinch chili flakes

• Sea salt, to taste

• Fresh cracked black pepper

• Fresh basil, chopped

• Olive oil, enough to coat

• Fried shallots from Trader Joe’s

• Your whipped blue cheese ricotta from my Dirty Martini Dip recipe

• Extra olive oil

• Flaky sea salt

1. Start by making the smashed olive salad. Add the smashed olives, garlic, lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, olive brine, dry vermouth, chili flakes, basil, sea salt, pepper, fried shallots, and olive oil to a bowl. Mix together and let it sit while you make the toast so all the flavors can mingle.

2. Heat a pan over medium heat and add the beef tallow. Toast the sourdough directly in the pan until deeply golden and crispy on both sides. The beef tallow makes it unbelievably rich and savory.

3. Spread a thick layer of whipped blue cheese ricotta onto each slice of toast.

4. Spoon the smashed olive mixture generously over the top.

5. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil, flaky salt, and/or extra citrus zest.

• Serve with an ice-cold dirty martini, obviously.

• Castelvetrano olives work especially well here for their buttery flavor.

• Add anchovies or your favorite tinned fish if you want to lean even harder into salty martini snack territory.

• This also makes an unreal appetizer, cut into smaller pieces for hosting.

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