Florence Pugh Shares the Recipe for Her Very Best “Garlicky Crostini”

Hey, this is Cooking with Flo, [beep].

[Florence laughs] [soft, mid-tempo music]

Hello, Vogue, I'm Florence Pugh, and today,

I'm gonna make a quick garlicky crostini.

You will need tomatoes, preferably on the vine,

some garlic, lots of garlic, a chili,

anchovies, if you like them, and some coriander or cilantro,

and my favorite, feta, plenty of olive oil,

a little dash of vinegar, and, of course,

your salt and pepper and bread because that's the best bit.

Firstly, you want to get your bread going

before anything else because it's gonna take a fair bit

of slow time in the oven,

and you're gonna do on the diagonal some nice thin slices.

This is probably the one recipe,

well, there's plenty of recipes,

where you can use stale bread.

Cooking has been a huge part of my life.

My dad's a cook. My mom is a cook.

My gran's a cook.

Well, they're not all professional cooks. Just my dad is.

Grab a pan,

[pan clatters] [soft upbeat music]

and you're going to drizzle both sides, and it can be messy.

Schmudge it around in the pan.

But I always like making a few mistakes because, to me,

that's where the best food and cooking comes from.

So, for example, today, I don't really know

what temperature to put the oven on.

Pop it in your oven for whatever temperature,

[laughs] and wait until it cooks.

Now I usually, when I'm cooking,

like to make a little drink,

so I'm going to prepare my favorite,

which is a martini with a twist.

Okay, so ideally, if you've thought about it,

you would've put your martini glasses in the freezer

to get that nice bit of cold, frosty bit,

and you're going to wait until the very last minute

to get them out.

Whoops.

Fill up your shaker with ice,

[ice clatters]

and then fill up your shaker with vodka.

[vodka glugs]

Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug,

glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug.

Shake!

[ice clatters]

It's the perfect size! Look at that.

See, when you put it in the freezer,

you get that nice frosted kind of tip all the way around,

and it just kind of keeps it colder for longer,

which is essentially what you want.

You're gonna get your lemon.

You're going to finely just slice a piece all the way down.

Then you're gonna wipe the inside,

[soft rhythmic music]

give it a swirl,

and pour that wonderful nectar into your glass,

and now we can continue cooking.

Oops, I spilled some.

So now I'm gonna start with the tomatoey,

garlicky, olive oily, salty chili thingy.

That's the name.

We're gonna grab your tomatoes. Grab your garlic.

Okay, so chop your tomatoes in half,

half again and half again.

They don't need to be neat or pretty at all.

They're all gonna go in a bowl.

You're all gonna smoosh them together,

and they're just gonna go on the top of bread anyway,

so it's not gonna be like anything fancy.

Literally even if you don't know how to chop,

just mush them in some way and get them all done,

and it's basically gonna create a nice like pulp,

which is a horrible word, [laughs] but it's delicious.

I mean, food is a part of it,

but body image for women is a major thing.

From the moment you start growing thighs and bums

and boobs and all of it, everything starts changing,

and your relationship with food starts changing.

I had a weird chapter with the beginning of my career,

but that was because I wasn't complying,

and I think that was confusing to people,

especially in Hollywood.

I think women, especially young women in Hollywood,

are obviously putting themselves in all these ways

in order to get whatever opportunity that they need to get

because that's just the way that it's been,

and when I went and did that project,

it was expected that you would be on whatever diet

that you needed to be on, and for me,

that was just shocking because I'd never done that before.

That's not to say that other people can do that, but yeah,

I think I definitely put my foot down in that aspect.

I love food.

As I said, literally, you don't even need to chop.

Just do that. Just smoosh it, easy.

Pop that in the bowl.

[soft percussive music]

You don't wanna miss out on those juices.

Wipe my hands 'cause I'm wearing a really nice dress,

and then we're gonna get some garlic.

God, that's a tough one.

And this one is a very garlicky recipe,

and so if you have any people that you're wanting to kiss,

just bear in mind 'cause it's like your breath

will become dangerous, but that's fine.

That's the point of garlic. A sharp knife is everything.

My dad taught me that when I was younger.

You don't even really need to do anything.

You just put it down.

Whenever I go to someone's house and I'm cooking for them,

I will always either bring my knives

or I'll get them a knife for their birthday being like,

Yeah, you really need it, and actually,

it's because I need it when I'm in their kitchen.

This is a lot of garlic. I think I over garlicked.

Yeah, this is a lot of garlic.

I'm gonna put half of that in.

[soft percussive music]

Maybe a little more.

Do a bit of that, do a bit of this.

That was a lot of that.

Maybe I'll chop some more [laughs] chili.

That's another thing.

Things go wrong and you just have to adapt.

Like I didn't know the vinegar

was gonna come gushing out, and now I'm gonna adapt.

[Florence screams]

[Florence grunts]

Yeah.

[soft percussive music]

Great. It's gonna self bake for a bit.

It's just gonna be put there and it's gonna be friends

with the garlic and the chicky.

Chicky? Chili.

Ta-da! It's all clean.

And it's time to take things outta the oven.

Outta the oven. Plunk it down.

Grab a garlic. This is the best bit.

And you're just gonna scratch it on the top like that.

Actually, this is a really handy snack.

If you don't have anything in the fridge,

just wipe garlic on a toasted piece of bread,

and you've got yourself a very simple

but very tasty garlic bread.

So two of my favorite loves, performing and cooking,

kind of come in hand in hand time and time again.

I play, throughout my entire career,

very intense characters, and, for me, I'm not method.

I don't stay in it all day, but when I get home,

I really need to get back to my usual self,

and I will always cook myself dinner,

or I'll cook whoever I'm with dinner as well.

So the best thing about this

is you have all of this amazing juice.

Now this amazing juice is gonna go

on every single one of these crusts.

The crusty bread, not so crusty,

so you can chew it without getting bleedy gums

'cause I hate that.

[soft percussive music]

And then I'm gonna do half with feta on the top

and half with feta and anchovies on the top.

I forgot about my coriander! Just this much.

You're gonna fold it into a little ball,

and you're gonna just quickly go like this.

Grab some feta, sprinkle on each piece,

and you are going to put one just on the top like that.

Definitely do half and half

because not everybody likes anchovies,

and there we have it with a bit of sprinkle of coriander.

[Florence laughs]

I've been told since we couldn't clear Del Water Gap

that we're gonna listen to some stock music,

and I'm gonna do my best moves to this music.

Thank you for watching my episode.

Here's my delicious dish, and let's do some dancing.

I feel like I'm in a Disney channel. This is great. [laughs]

Hey, this is Cooking with Flo, [beep].

[Florence laughs] [bright electronic music]

[bread crunches]

[bright electronic music] [people speak indistinctly]

Woo!