Bruschetta (Italian Tomato and Basil Topped Toasts)

Bruschetta is one of those creations that almost everyone agrees upon: that they love it! Using fresh, top quality ingredients is key to obtaining the best results.

I’d like to introduce you to one of my favorite things in the world: bruschetta.

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Bruschetta is such a beautiful and delicious appetizer to serve. Whether it is a starter for a weeknight family meal, or for a small dinner with guests or even a large finger food party; it’s something everyone seems to love!

Best quality Ingredients = Best result

As I always stress, the main thing to remember in order to have bruschetta taste as good as it looks, is to use top quality ingredients which is central to all Mediterranean diet recipes.

1. Organic or homegrown tomatoes are usually the best (most types of tomatoes will work, even grape or cherry tomatoes.) If you do not have access to these, choose tomatoes which actually smell like tomatoes; if they are on the vine, the vine should be green and not dry.
2. (Optional – Fresh garlic (definitely not in a jar or frozen) if you are using, is key, whether just rubbed onto the bread, or chopped into the tomatoes.
3. Fresh basil. If you use the dried stuff, it just won’t taste good.
4. Extra virgin olive oil is soooo critical; it will make or break your bruschetta!
5. Salt is important too! Have you found a salt you love? If not, you should do a taste test among a few good quality salts. I do most of my cooking with Diamond Crystal Kosher, but also love Maldon, or other Italian or French sea salts for dishes like bruschetta.

Here’s another fresh tomato dish to try: burrata filled tomatoes!

How to Pronounce Bruschetta

Incidentally, I’d also like to tell you how to correctly pronounce “bruschetta” because it’s not “brew-shettah”. The correct pronunciation is “brew-skay-tah” (ch in Italian is pronounced as a “k”). See, that was easy, right?

Okay, that’s your Italian lesson for the day, now let’s make some BREW-SKAY-TAH!!

Tomato Bruschetta

a family recipe                            makes enough for about 3 or 4 servings

FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW

Ingredients

• tomatoes, preferably organic, heirloom or homegrown
• OPTIONAL: fresh garlic
• fresh basil
• extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt (you can always add more)
• slices of bread (try to use a rustic, crusty Italian loaf, ciabatta or a baguette)

Directions for Bruschetta

Grill or toast the bread. I like to brush it with a little oil and put it into a panini press, or barbecue grill.

If using garlic, rub a cut side of the garlic onto the toasted bread slices (this is more popular in Italy), or finely chop the garlic.

Dice the tomatoes into small cubes, or chunks and put into a medium sized bowl.

Now, add the garlic to the tomatoes.

Chop one or two large basil leaves into little pieces and place all 3 ingredients into a bowl.

Add a the extra virgin olive oil and Kosher or sea salt, to taste. Mix well, and if it doesn’t taste wonderful, you probably need to add more salt to the bruschetta topping.

All that’s left to do is to top the bread with the lovely tomato mixture and enjoy!

TIP:  don’t make bruschetta ahead of time as the juice will make the bread soggy very quickly. Add the salt and oil and and top the toast just before serving.

Try this other classic Italian antipasto: prosciutto and melon.

And don’t forget a classic Caprese salad!

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