Bruschetta (brew-sketta) is an Italian dish of toasted bread with toppings. It can be eaten as an appetizer, a light lunch, or even as breakfast or dessert. Although there are many versions of bruschetta that can be prepared at any time of the year my favorites are perfect for summer time. Here are two recipes that I love.
Classic Bruschetta
In this iconic version the toasted bread is rubbed with a clove of garlic as soon as it comes off the heat. The garlic melts into the bread and the tomato, onion, and basil topping is spooned over. Warm crunchy bread topped with cool herbed tomato makes for a mouthful of delicious.
2 cups assorted tomatoes cut into large dice. I usually use Roma tomatoes but almost any type will do. Some people like to squeeze the seeds out of the tomatoes. I usually leave them in.
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped (aren’t the little red onions from my garden cute?)
3 tablespoons olive oil plus additional for brushing
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 loaf rustic Italian or French bread cut into 1/2″ slices.
1 garlic clove, peeled, halved
Combine the tomatoes, onion, 3 tablespoons olive oil, basil, and balsamic vinegar in medium bowl; season with salt and pepper. You can make this a couple of hours in advance and leave at room temperature. Stir it occasionally.
Preheat grill or broiler. Lightly oil the bread slices on both sides. I use this handy sprayer to get a light, even coating of oil.
Place the bread directly on grill (or under the broiler as I did here) and toast; watching carefully so that it does not burn. Turn and toast the other side. Take the bread off the grill and immediately rub one side with the peeled garlic clove.
Top toasted bread with tomato mixture and serve. (Alternately you can cut an entire loaf of bread in half crosswise. Toast just the cut side; rub with garlic and top with the tomato mixture. this makes a nice presentation for parties and you can cut slices at the table.)
One variation of this classic dish adds white cannellini beans to the tomato mixture which would make it a perfect light lunch.
Strawberry Goat Cheese Bruschetta
I tried this slightly sweeter version of bruschetta recently for a weekend breakfast. It was easy to put together and I could have made it even easier by toasting my bread in the toaster.
There is really not much of a recipe involved. The ingredients are simply:
Toasted bread slices
Goat cheese
Sliced Strawberries
Balsamic vinegar (You could boil some balsamic vinegar to reduce it and make a thicker, syrupy topping but I used a bottle of espresso balsamic from one of those fancy vinegar and oil stores. It was thick enough!)
Toast your bread, spread with a thin layer of the goat cheese, and top with sliced strawberries. Drizzle a little balsamic vinegar over the top and garnish with thinly sliced basil. Lovely!
By the way, did you know that the best way to store any extra herbs, like basil, is to keep them in a glass jar with a little water in the bottom in your refrigerator? It will last for several days like this.
If you’ve never tried bruschetta before you do not know what you’re missing. Please let me know if you enjoy these recipe.