Unfortunately, this summer was not great for our garden. We had a late start due to a cool spring, a wicked windstorm in early August, and just not enough days of sunny and hot. (The heat wave we saw in late July helped, but it was a little too late and too short to do any real good.)
Not all was lost; we got a few ears of corn, a handful of beans and lots of zucchini. The sugar snap peas did well, but that was due mostly to the long cool spring. However, I was especially pleased with the performance of the grape tomatoes. I had received the seeds as a gift from a friend in California, and they did quite well despite the coolish weather.
One evening I’d collected a bowlful of the sweet little fruits, and I decided to make a tomato bruschetta. At its simplest, bruschetta is just toasted bread rubbed with garlic and olive oil, but most North Americans have come to associate bruschetta with the tomato-topped bread commonly served in restuarants. I have to say that I love tomato bruschetta with a firey passion, and I was excited to try my hand at making some at home.
I was kind of winging it with the recipe, so please take all actual amounts with a grain of salt, and feel free to adjust to taste! I’ve noticed that a lot of recipes call for peeling the tomatoes (there’s a photo walkthrough here), I didn’t feel it was neccessary. If you can’t find grape tomatoes, you can substitute cherry tomatoes as they have a similar sweetness. Also, I used garlic-infused olive oil; you can use regular extra-virgin olive oil and increase the garlic to two cloves if desired.
You’ll need:
* 2-3 cups chopped grape tomatoes
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* garlic-infused extra virgin olive oil
* salt & pepper
* Italian seasoning (use the dried stuff your mom got for you)
* 1/8 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
* 1 loaf crusty French bread
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Slice the bread into 3/4″ to 1″ slices. Toast the slices in a toaster oven until they’re just slightly golden. (You can use your large oven if desired; just set the slices directly on the oven rack, and watch closely!)
In a large mixing bowl, gently mix tomatoes, garlic, parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning and salt/pepper. Drizzle with garlic-infused olive oil and mix again.
Cover two baking sheets with aluminium foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. Brush slices with garlic-infused olive oil – don’t be stingy! Spoon tomato mixture onto bread slices. Bake in oven for 5-10 minutes, or until bread edges just start to turn brown.
Possible variations: endless! Try adding chopped red onion, or wilted spinach, or topping with mozzerella cheese instead of mixing in the parmesan.
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June 8, 2009 at 1:04 pm
[...] back to the dinner! While I’ve made bruschetta before, that was more of the Western style: toasted bread topped with stuff. At it’s most [...]