Bruschetta

Let me tell you now: once you go with this bruschetta, you will never go back.

It is amazing. Seriously. I'm not a huge fan of tomatoes, especially raw ones, and I loooooove this stuff. It's become one of my standard party appetizer recipes because when I crack this baby open at a party and everyone gets a whiff, they all come huddling around wanting to know what's in it.

It's a real easy recipe, just mix the tomato stuff together and let it marinate. I'm telling you, that balsamic just works some magic. You may be tempted to skip that marinating time, don't. The garlic mellows out a bit and it just tastes better. You can skip it in a pinch, but it's much tastier if it sits. Once you're ready to serve, toast up the bread and strain off the liquid and you're good to go. I always make a double-batch because all my friends know this dish and will polish off a single batch way too fast!

Excuse the iPhone photo. It's great stuff, trust me.

Bruschetta
makes 4 servings

3 firm roma tomatoes, finely diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons diced marinated sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

For the toasts:
9-10 slices ciabatta or Italian bread
1 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
pinch dried parsley flakes

1. Toss tomatoes, salt, basil, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes (if using), olive oil, and vinegar together in a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

2. When you are ready to serve, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine Parmesan and parsley in a small bowl. Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet.

3. Sprinkle Parmesan mixture on bread slices and bake for 5 minutes, until the bread starts to crisp.

4. Pour tomato mixture into a serving dish (drain off liquid) and serve alongside the toasts.

Sun-Dried Bruschetta

For dinner tonight, I was originally planning on having leftover pork roast with some kind of pasta as a side. But I was feeling kind of icky and my body was telling me that it wanted vegetables, so I ended up having bruschetta with a huge mound of vegetables. To begin, I'd just like to say that I know nothing about bruschetta. So I pretty much made this up with a little guidance from Alton Brown.

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of loaf-bread (I used leftover "OG" breadsticks slices)
  
• 1 tomato
• 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes
• Olive Oil
• Minced garlic
• Kosher salt
• Pepper
• Basil

Recipe:

1. Rub the bread with the minced garlic and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
3. Dice the tomato. I realized that I'd been doing it wrong for years, and finally learned how to do it properly on youtube. In the end, it looked like this...well, before I spooned out any excess seeds from the "petals" turned it them cubes:
4. Toss tomatoes in olive oil, salt, pepper, and basil.
5. Line a pan with tin foil and spray with cooking spray. Arrange the tomatoes in a single layer on the pan. Here they are, ready to go!
6. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven, stir them around, then roast for another 10 minutes.
8. With about seven minutes left, get some water a'boilin'.
9. Wipe excess garlic from the bread and brush the slices with olive oil. Get them nice and toasty in a pan. I had the heat too high so I kind of burned mine...once again proving that patience is a virtue...that I do not possess.
   
10. With two minutes left on the tomatoes, pour the boiling water over the sun-dried tomatoes and let them sit and re-hydrate for a couple of minutes.
    
11. When the timer beeps, drain the sun-dried tomatoes, pull the roasted tomatoes from the oven, and mix the two together. Spoon them over the toasty bread and enjoy!

The bread is under there...I promise. I bit into the bread before putting the tomato goodness on top (just to make sure it was edible despite the slight burned-ness), and holy crap, it tasted delicious. Maybe I was just hungry, but I literally said out loud, "Holy crap, that is good." So simple, just garlic, olive oil and bread, but so, so tasty. With my undying love for sun-dried tomatoes, I really enjoyed the topping as well. In a perfect world, I would've dressed it up even more with cheese and such, and used fresh (instead of dried) basil, but I was limited by what I had on hand. If you like tomatoes and delicious bread, I would recommend this recipe. I'm sad I used up my last tomato before I head to South Dakota, otherwise I would make it again for myself before I leave on Saturday. Yum.