To me, nothing screams ?SUMMER!? more than a bowl of juicy, ripe strawberries. As with pretty much everything in our adult lives, I can attribute this association to childhood. My mom would stand at the kitchen counter hulling strawberries with a plastic straw to make strawberry shortcake for dessert. We even had a sprawling strawberry patch in our backyard. As anyone who tends a garden will tell you, food grown steps from where you eat it tastes infinitely better than anything you can buy at the store.
I don?t have space for a strawberry patch in my tiny Chicago backyard, but I still keep a carton in my fridge to eat with granola and coconut milk for breakfast, as well as to satiate my afternoon sweet tooth. Sometimes I?ll even get fancy and slice them into a salad. But recently, I was inspired to take my strawberry game to a new level. I had bought a fresh baguette from a local bakery at the Logan Square Farmers? Market I thought, ?why not Bruschetta"?
Traditionally made with tomatoes, strawberries seemed like the perfect swap for a sweet take on this Italian hors d’oeuvre (for the record, I have to Google ?hors d’oeuvre? every time I want to spell it.) I paired it with a delightful nut cheese I learned to make at Matthew Kenney Culinary. We used raw macadamia nuts in school, but I went with cashews here. Macadamia nuts don?t require soaking, so if you?re short on time, they?re a terrific swap!

A sprinkling of thinly sliced, fresh basil elevates this s...