Ever since I started this blog, I’ve been receiving all sorts of recipe ideas and cool tidbits about food from people around me. Sometimes they are links to other food blogs, other times they are pages torn out of magazines. This recipe came in the form of a newspaper clipping from my father (thanks, dad!) who travels extensively for work and has eaten a lot of great food from all over the world.

A few days ago, he sent me a newspaper profile of a Taiwanese pastry chef who has won a local prestigious culinary award. The article talked about the chef’s bakery and its popular items, which included toasted French baguettes topped with pesto and melted cheese.

I know the idea isn’t original. I did a brief Google search and found a few recipes like this. But I was surprised at how this idea hadn’t occurred to me before. It’s a prime example of making ordinary foods extraordinary by using a few simple ingredients.

Baguettes, cheese and pesto are all wonderful foods on their own. But they are even more wonderful when put together. The bread becomes salty and herbal and the cheese is golden and gooey. It tastes a lot like this eggplant pesto pizza I used to get in college, without all the grease and the tip for the delivery man.

Try to use homemade pesto for this. It’s really easy to make if you have a food processor. I used basil, parsley, pine nuts and parmesan cheese for mine. You can use any other combination you like. Tarragon, walnuts and some percorino cheese may also work well.

This bread is great served with a bowl of soup or alongside a salad for lunch. It also works as a side to a more elaborate dinner. Nick and I gobbled it up as an afternoon snack topped with slices of tomatoes.

I hope you will give this a try and be inspired to find other simple and delicious recipes like this.