Tuscan Chicken Liver Crostini (Crostini di Fegatini)

Author Notes

There are as many recipes for crostini di fegatini as there are cooks in Tuscany but the preparation is similar, with just a few personal tweaks here and there. Usually, salted anchovies, capers or both are present – they provide that trademark Tuscan saltiness.
The liquid used to cook the livers in and soften the pate can change from red wine to stock to water or – the one I prefer – vin santo, Tuscany's favourite dessert wine (marsala or sherry could be used instead). A good secret that a chef in Florence once let me in on is to add some walnuts to the livers – it lends the pate a nice, dark colour, as liver tends to cook to an unappealing greenish-grey colour.
Occasionally, a thicker pate might have the addition of white bread. And, more rarely, a soffritto of carrot, celery and onion makes its way into the mix. This later version is how Pellegrino Artusi instructs making these crostini in his 1891 cookbook, along with pancetta and dried porcini mushrooms – unorthodox ingredients now. It is a wonderful version, albeit more delicate than the flavourful, rustic one you'll usually see on tables today. Artusi's is chopped roughly with a mezzaluna, another part of the process that can change the appearance and texture of crostini di fegatini across Tuscan kitchens. Some like it smooth and some like it chunky. Some go half way.
You'll also find that often this pate is made with the addition of a few chicken hearts together with the livers, simply because they are often sold together. Waste not want not.
The classic Tuscan antipasto would not be complete without crostini di fegatini. Serve them together with a charcuterie platter, perhaps with some paper thin slices of prosciutto, finocchiona (a fennel seed studded large, soft salame) or other salumi and wedges of pecorino cheese. —Emiko