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.
- Heirloom, organic or homegrown tomatoes are usually the best. 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.
- Fresh garlic (definitely not in a jar or frozen), is key to good bruschetta, as is fresh Italian basil and good quality extra virgin olive oil.
- Fresh basil. If you use the dried stuff, it just won’t taste good.
- 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 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!!
Bruschetta
family recipe makes enough for about 3 or 4 servings
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Ingredients
- tomatoes, preferably organic, heirloom or homegrown
- fresh garlic
- fresh basil
- extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt (you can always add more)
- slices of toast (try to use a rustic, crusty Italian loaf, ciabatta or a baguette)
Directions for Bruschetta
Dice the tomatoes into small cubes and put into a medium sized bowl.
Next, finely mince the garlic. You can use a garlic press, but I much prefer to do it by hand or to use this little contraption I found at Williams Sonoma–it’s so much fun to use and makes perfect little cubes of garlic. (Alternatively, rub a cut clove of garlic over the toast, just to give a hint of garlic, and omit the cloves in the tomatoes. This is more popular in Italy.)
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.
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Bruschetta
Ingredients
- 3 tomatoes (medium sized, preferably organic, heirloom or homegrown)
- 3 cloves garlic (fresh, 2 if they're large)
- 3 leaves basil (fresh)
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp Kosher salt (or sea salt)
- slices of toast (to serve, try to use a crusty Italian loaf, ciabatta or a baguette)
Instructions
- Dice the tomatoes into small cubes and put into a medium sized bowl.
- Next, finely mince the garlic. You can use a garlic press, but I much prefer to do it by hand. Add the garlic to the tomatoes.
- Chop one or two large basil leaves into little pieces and place all three of the ingredients into a bowl.
- Add 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. All that's left to do is to top the bread with the lovely tomato mixture and enjoy!
Notes
- (Alternatively, rub a cut clove of garlic over the toast, just to give a hint of garlic, and omit the cloves in the tomatoes. This is more popular in Italy.)
- You can omit the garlic completely if you don't like it.
Nutrition
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Hi Christina – so you don’t toast the bread and rub the garlic on it? Is that something completely different – crostini?
Oh yes, you absolutely can do that, that is very traditional, but some people only do that and don’t add the garlic. Whatever you prefer. I’m mostly talking about recipes that add lots of other herbs, seasonings, ingredients and balsamic vinegar/glaze. Those are not authentic. :)
Thank you Christina!