Bruschetta – Recipe

I call this dish “summer on a plate”, it’s just one of those gorgeously delicious, simple meals that everyone needs to try! I have never met anyone who doesn’t love it, I made it recently for a Chinese guy who positively raved about it (as he should!) 😉

In order to ensure I can always make this meal I will buy a loaf of good quality ciabatta or sour dough, cut it into “meal-sized” portions then free-flow freeze it. That way, any time I want bruschetta, I simply get out a portion of bread, leave it to thaw and can be eating Italian heaven within minutes, if I am in a hurry.

What I’ve taken to doing in recent years though, is actually putting the tomatoes and a bit of finely diced capsicum, red onion & a pinch (or more, to taste) of chilli in a bowl with some salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil and leaving it for a few hours ..

So in other words I prep lunch at breakfast time!

For all the tomato collapses a bit, the taste is worth it and I recommend this over fresh chopped tomatoes, any day!

So, like I said it’s simple:

Chop up some tomato (1 decent sized tomato makes enough for a good sized meal for one person), slug in some oil, salt and pepper plus the additions if you want them.. Set aside (covered but not chilled) for up to 4 hours.

When you want to eat, pre-heat a pan .. drizzle a tiny bit of oil into the pan and ‘grill’ the bread .. I’ve tried a dry pan, it’s fine but it is harder to clean hence the oil..

Add in any herbs now (to the tomato mix, in the pics here I’ve just sliced in 3 basil leaves).

When the bread is cooked, rub a little raw garlic on it (only a little or it tastes bitter!) pile the tomato mix on top and serve .. It doesn’t need oil, seasoning or anything because you did that earlier!

Oh and you can mix or match as you please ..

Once I had some ripe avocado so I added that underneath the tomatoes – DELISH! I also love to smear soft goat cheese on the toasted bread .. or melt mozz cheese on it .. or some feta mashed up with a little sour cream and lemon zest + pepper .. You can do what you like, it’s all good!

But the simple one is delish, if you can’t be bothered with additions ..

Enjoy!

PS there’s only one tablespoon of oil in that pic above, the salt draws the moisture out of the tomatoes and you get this feisty, tasty juice to pour over the bread, it’s amazing!!