Description
This luxurious dip pairs beautifully with herbed crostini. Perfect appetizer for any type of gathering. Follow along with my instructional video – it’s so easy to make!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1/4 cup diced shallot or onion
- 6 ounces gorgonzola cheese (one small container)
- 2 ounces diced pancetta bacon, or regular bacon (see notes 1 & 3)
- 10 large deveined and peeled shrimp (large 26-30 size)
- 1/2 pint heavy cream (more if needed)
- 1 clove garlic, finely diced
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley, optional
- Olive oil, as needed to brush on bread
- 12 crostini pieces (sliced French bread loaf)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (or basil, oregano, sage)
- salt & pepper, just a pinch here when cooking the shrimp
Instructions
- Finely dice the shallot and garlic and set aside.
- Remove tails from the shrimp and peel and discard remaining shell. See pinch, pull, peel method in blog post.
- In one pan, add your shrimp and a small drizzle of olive oil (maybe one teaspoon or so) and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook shrimp on low to medium heat. They need approximately 2-3 minutes on each side. They’re done when they turn pink and shrink a bit.
- In another pan, cook the pancetta on low to medium heat until it gets crispy. About 5-7 minutes. There is a lot of fat and you’ll need to pour the excess into a small bowl. Be careful it's very hot.
- After the pancetta is cooked and you’ve drained the excess fat, add the shallots and garlic and stir to combine the ingredients. Cook 2-3 minutes until onions are soft - careful not to burn the garlic. If your pan is a little dry, just add back a little of the fat you set aside.
- While pancetta, shallot and bacon are cooking give your shrimp a rough chop then add it to your pan and mix together.
- Add the gorgonzola cheese and heavy cream to the pan and give it a stir. Then cover, still on low heat for 5-7 minutes. The cheese should be mostly melted by then. Some chunks of gorgonzola are fine.
- While the dip is cooking you can chop the parsley (if using) and set it aside.
- Next, get your crostini ready. Slice the French bread into 12 thin pieces. Lay out your bread on a toaster oven pan and brush with olive oil. Lightly sprinkle a little dried thyme (or basil, oregano, sage) on top of your crostini. Broil in your toaster oven for a few minutes until the bread is nicely toasted. Keep your eye on this so it doesn’t burn.
- Best way to serve this is put the dip in a serving dish, add a bit of the parsley and give it a stir. Spread the crostini around the dip. Use remaining parsley to sprinkle on top of dip. Should be served immediately.
Equipment
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Mini Appetizer Forks (stainless steel)
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Serving Bowls-Colorful Patterns (set of 4)
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T-fal Non-Stick Pans (set of 3)
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- Pancetta is a bit expensive so if you don’t want to spend the money you can substitute with 4-5 strips of regular bacon. Dice the raw bacon into small pieces and cook the same way in a pan. Don't forget to drain most of that fat.
- Gorgonzola is typically sold in small containers near where the goat cheese and feta cheese are sold in grocery stores. The containers seem to come in 6 ounce portions which is why I presented this ingredient in ounces instead of cups.
- Pancetta is much saltier than bacon so keep this in mind. I bought a 5-ounce package and used just 2-2 ½ ounces or about half the small package. You could use the additional pancetta on top of a salad, add to homemade bread crumbs, or mac & cheese to name a few ideas.
- If you’re using frozen shrimp, take shrimp from freezer the night before and let defrost overnight in the refrigerator.
- You can substitute regular onion for the shallot.
- If you don’t have dried thyme for the crostini, you could use dried basil or oregano.
- The shrimp bag said "large, raw shrimp, deveined 26-30." If you want more shrimp than I used - you can certainly add a few more shrimp!
- For the French baguette, you'll want then thinner version at your local supermarket bakery section. See picture comparison in blog post.