Cherry Walnut Bruschetta

The great thing about summer is that I can buy produce, well fruit at least, outside my office building from a fruit stand vendor. I have no idea where he trucks his fruit in, but it’s probably somewhere closer than where the average grocery store gets them given how firm and juicy the fruit is. And I love seeing them use those simple scoop-bottomed scales–always so human. Although the figs looked tempting, I opted for some dark, ruby-red cherries because, after all, it is summer and life is like the saying goes.

Cherry Walnut Bruschetta

The sweet, tart cherries are a great complement to the earthiness of the walnuts, and piled on a bed of ricotta on toasted bread, it actually makes a complete, cool summer meal. I tossed the leftover cherry and walnut mixture with some arugula greens for a tasty salad.

Ingredients:

About 1/2 lb fresh black cherries, halved and pitted
1 cup walnuts, coarsely crushed or chopped
1 tbspn olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
Ricotta
Toasted slices of french bread

Combine first four ingredients in a bowl, and refrigerate while preparing the rest. Once the bread has been toasted and cooled, spread on a layer of ricotta, and top with the cherry walnut mixture.