Albacore Tuna, White Bean and Tapenade Crostini

Method

1. Tip the beans into a sieve and rinse them under cold water until the water runs clear. The liquid in the tin is starchy and tastes of the tin.
2. Shake the sieve hard and leave the beans to drain for five minutes. Wet beans make a loose mash, and a loose mash is what soaks into a toast.
3. Put the beans in a bowl with the olive oil, grated garlic, lemon juice and a good pinch of salt, then crush them with a fork to a rough mash. Leave about a quarter of them whole so there is something to bite.
4. Taste it and adjust. This layer sits under everything and it needs to taste finished on its own, so be braver with the salt and lemon than feels right.
5. Open the tins and tip the tuna onto a plate, oil and all. Lift the fish off with a fork and keep the oil in a small bowl for the last step.
6. Lay the bagel toasts out on a board in a single layer, and count them now. This is the moment to find out you are six short, not when the mash is spread.
7. Spread a heaped teaspoon of bean mash onto each toast, out to the edges. Full coverage is the point: the mash is thick enough to sit on the surface and it is what stands between the toast and everything wet above it.
8. Break the tuna over the top in large flakes, two or three per piece. Do not chop it and do not stir it through the beans.
9. Add half a teaspoon of tapenade to each piece, off to one side rather than over the whole surface, then scatter the parsley, the lemon zest and the preserved lemon if you are using it.
10. Drizzle the reserved tin oil over the tray and grind on some pepper, then serve. Oil softens bagel toast faster than anything else in the recipe, so it goes on last and no earlier than 20 minutes before people eat.

Questions we get asked

What do you put on crostini?

Three things, in this order: something soft to grip the base, something salty to lead, something fresh at the end. Here that is bean mash, tuna and tapenade, finished with parsley. The same base takes ricotta with chutney, whipped feta with roasted capsicum, or goat cheese with honey and pepper. The soft layer is not optional in any version, because it is what stops the topping sliding off on the way from the board to a guest's hand.

Can you make crostini toppings ahead?

The toppings yes, the assembled crostini no. Bean mash keeps two days covered in the fridge and is better on day two, once the raw garlic has settled down. The tapenade is already made. Chop the parsley on the day and keep the tuna in its unopened tins in the cupboard until you need it. Assembly is a 10 minute job, so do it 20 minutes before people eat and not a moment earlier. A soft base cannot be rescued.

What is a good no cook Christmas starter?

One built on a crisp base with a jar behind it. These crostini, a bowl of olives and crackers, or cured meat with pickles and good bread. The test for an Australian December is whether the dish minds sitting out on a warm day. Keep the tray in the coolest part of the room, keep the fish in the fridge until the last minute, and put out half the pieces at a time so the second half arrives crisp.

The tin is the part worth ordering early. Walker's Tuna albacore is $5.95 for 70g and it is the only tinned fish we carry, so it is not a thing to leave until the week before Christmas. The tapenade and the bagel toast keep in a cupboard for months, which means the whole tray can go in one order in October and be forgotten until the day. Free shipping Australia-wide on orders over $100. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post. If the jars are headed for somebody else's table rather than yours, the same brands turn up inside our Christmas hampers.