Simple and fast

Its been a long weekend.  We had a 3 day weekend to mark Islamic New Year and I would love to be able to say we had so many social events that we partied ourselves to this state of exhaustion.  Sadly no, the household was feeling a little out of sorts with one niggle or another (including the treacherous Man Flu).

Because we had already ordered pizza once this weekend, had Tacos and eaten sushi at a fancy restaurant (yes we went out to party one night and it was fun!), I could only justify cooking something, but it had to be quick and easy to cook and eat.  Yesterday morning we visited the lovely Ripe Markets which is a real treat here hosting a variety of food and home ware stalls, specifically the produce market of organic and mostly locally grown fruit and veggies.  The bunches of Basil are enormous and leafy and the bag of shiny tomatoes was too good to walk past (husband’s favourite).  So dinner was sorted – Bruschetta.  Picked up a loaf of bread and dinner was on its way.

I consulted a few of my giant Italian cookery books and each one had the ingredients for traditional tomato bruschetta – tomatoes, basil, bread, olive oil, salt.  With a few additional zingy elements (I love tanginess in a salad – feels very refreshing), my version resembles more of a panzanella salad but with the salad on top of the croutons!  You could add whatever you wanted to this recipe, add more of one ingredient or leave out another.  It has so few ingredients that you need to make sure whatever you use is of great quality.  A slice of fresh mozzarella or ricotta would be delicious too.

The recipe I think would serve 4-6 as part of a mixed antipasti but last night satisfied 2 hungry people perched in front of the TV with a bottle of red.  And it was good.

Tomato Bruschetta

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Re: bread, just choose something with a nice crusty outside and soft interior that you love, sourdough, ciabatta, something a little dense so it can carry the big flavours.  Something also not too tough.  In our house we call bread that is too crusty a 'roof cutter' literally slices the roof of your mouth when you eat it!

Author: Edwina Stuart

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 loaf of rustic bread sliced about 2cm thick (I sliced my loaf lengthways in half then into smaller pieces so that each piece has crust as the bottom - to hold the juices in)
• 4 small or 2 large tomatoes (I used vine ripened, very red and sweet)
• 2-3 tablespoons fresh basil (about 6-8 big leaves)
• 1 golden shallot (eschallot) very finely diced (spanish onion is fine too, about 2 tablespoons)
• ¼ cup of good quality olive oil plus extra for drizzling toast
• 1 tablespoon of red wine / red grape vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• ½ teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
• 1 clove of garlic

Instructions

1. To make dressing, in a small bowl add diced shallots, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.  Set aside to marinate.
2. Dice the tomatoes and shred the basil into a separate bowl.  I sliced the basil but if you are a traditionalist by all means tear it in pieces.
3. For the bread, grill on a pan on the stove or in the oven until you get some nice charcoal bits but it's still soft inside - I grilled on both sides.  While still hot, rub bread with a cut garlic clove and drizzle with olive oil.
4. Mixed the tomatoes and basil with the dressing.  Spoon mixture onto the bread including all the juices.

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