Italian Nachos

Necessity provides inspiration. I needed to use the giardiniera that's been steeping in my kitchen for the past few weeks. I also felt like eating nachos. Solution: make nachos with giardiniera on it. But not any kind of nachos I said to myself. If I'm going to use an Italian ingredient, I might as well run with the idea.

So I arranged the nachos, evenly sprinkled with small lumps of pesto and tapenade, added slices of ham, slathered with giardiniera, covered with mozarella and placed a few grape tomatoes and chopped parsley and basil on top. Baked in my toaster oven till the cheese melted (5 minutes or so) the result was pretty good. These toppings would make an awesome pizza. Or pizza crust nachos? Something less salty than nachos. Pita chips?

Oh and the grape tomatoes got all stiff and hot and bursted in my mouth when I crunched into them. Yum.