How To Make Bruschetta

Hi everyone 🙂

I’m having a serious Bruschetta addiction at the moment, I can’t get enough of them……HELP ME! Hopefully after I write out the recipe (or simple instructions in this case) they will be out of my system for awhile at least, because how many Ciabatta loaves can one woman eat?!

The baker that supplies my bread at work makes the best ciabatta EVER and kindly gave me a loaf 🙂 so I made them last week to go with my Ratatouille. Yesterday I oven roasted some vine-ripened tomatoes and had some basil and feta left over from a frittata I made so today for lunch I made some MORE bruschetta so I could enjoy them for a snack, well it was just supposed to be a snack but it was a few so I guess you could of called it lunch and be done with it, except I already had lunch, so a snack it is, haha 🙂

Bruschetta is basically small pieces of toasted bread, rubbed with garlic whilst hot and then drizzled with your best olive oil and then eaten hot or cold with all sorts of delicious toppings. I think Bruschetta is best made with ciabatta (they are Italian after all!) as it has those little holes for the olive oil to deliciously fill up, but any lovely rustic loaf of bread will do. There are a few ways Bruschetta can made and enjoyed….. baked in the oven, grilled on the barbeque or under an oven grill, even fried in a pan. I’m too much of a girl to turn on the greasy old barbecue so I just use my oven top grill plate which I sit on top of my gas hobs.

 

Bruschetta – Bruschetta originates from central Italy and is properly pronounced BROO-SKET-TA, with a rolled R but we pronounce it ‘bru-shet-ta’ and it’s from the word bruscare  which means ‘to roast over coals’. Fresher rustic bread (sliced diagonally or across) is used to make them and It can be baked, toasted under the grill, or grilled on the BBQ until golden and then rubbed with fresh garlic cloves, sprinkled with salt flakes, drizzled with the best olive oil and eaten hot or cold depending on the topping.Traditionally bruschetta was something you would have at an Italian BBQ, grilled until a bit chared (burnt/bruscare) and then as said, rubbed with fresh garlic cloves, sprinkled with salt and drizzled with the best olive oil, especially in the winter with the new oil. This is where ‘Garlic Bread’ originated from. Over time restaurants started to serve Bruschetta as an appetizer with delicious toppings which can be as simple or as elegant as you like; from fresh or marinated vegetables, herbs, sliced meats, seafood and beautiful cheeses. Whatever you put on top is up to you as long as it’s fresh and looks and tastes delissimo.

1 ciabatta loaf
1/2 cup extra virgin Olive oil (maybe more or less, depending on how big your ciabatta loaf is)
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 large clove of fresh garlic

 

Note

• I’ve kept it traditional(ish) but you can of course play around with these. You could replace the olive oil with avocado oil or herb infused oil (like rosemary) and you could use garlic salt also.

 

METHOD

Get your beautiful ciabatta ready.

Using a sharp serrated knife and slice the ciabatta into 1 cm / 1/2 inch slices across (width-ways).

Grilled

Heat up the grill-plate over your gas hobs, or your barbecue grill-plate or turn the oven grill on and grill both sides of the slices until they are ‘bruscare’…..nicely charred with dark brown (black) lines and crisp or if using the oven grill, until they are golden brown.

Baked

This is the rather un-traditional (but still tasty) method of toasting them, baking them in the oven. Preheat the oven to 160° fan-bake or 180° conventional oven, on bake, with an oven rack situated in the centre.

Spread the slices out on the baking tray and bake them for 15 minutes or even 20 minutes, until they are crisp and are a light brown shade. Bruschetta have a slight crunch to them so you really want them to be well baked.

*If they are not baked long enough when you drizzle them with the olive oil and/or put toppings on them they will become soggy quickly. Stale bread is better used as it is not as soft and it’s a great way to use it up.

So once grilled or baked, rub the garlic clove over one side. You’ll be surprised how much garlic gets infused into the bread this way so don’t get too over zealous…..unless you are a big lover of garlic of course!

Then over the same sides you have rubbed the garlic on…..

…..drizzle over your best olive oil and grind or sprinkle a small amount of salt over if you wish…….yum! I just don’t think I’m over my obsession just yet.

There you go. You can eat these hot or cold, depending on what you are having on them (If anything at all)…..I think these would be great straight off the barbecue with a full anti-pasto board nearby to choose your toppings 🙂

Storage – Cool and store in an airtight container (out of the fridge). They will keep well for about a week. They may become soft (especially if under baked or grilled) and if so they can be bought back to life by heating them on a tray in the oven for 8 minutes on 160°C fan bake or 180°C conventional oven, on bake.

So, I’d love to know what toppings you like to put on your Bruschetta 🙂