Yum. Doesn't that look so good? It's making me hungry just looking at it, and it's only 8:30 in the morning. We've both had bruschetta before, and realize that it's fairly simple to throw together, but for some reason we've never done it before. We modeled our recipe after the one found here; we liked that it uses grape tomatoes instead of just tomato slices because we buy grape tomatoes for recipes occasionally but never seem to use all of them before they go bad. Wasted tomatoes we will have no more though, now that we have this recipe.
I don't actually have exact measurements to give you; the website I borrowed the recipe from made enough bruschetta to feed four people, and we certainly didn't need that much, so we just combined the ingredients in reasonable proportions for our tastes. To start we tossed the grape tomatoes (cut into smaller pieces) with olive oil, fresh chopped basil, minced garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt, and freshly ground pepper. Then we spread the tomato mixture on to pieces of French bread and topped with fresh mozzarella. To give the bread a little crisp and melt the mozzarella we baked them in a 350* oven for 8-10 minutes. So delish. I will say, though, French bread maybe wasn't the best choice--when we put the tomatoes on the bread the juices that they were tossed in soaked right through and made it really hard to eat. Of course, it also gave the bread really good flavor, so it wasn't a total loss. I think next time, though, we'll try it on ciabatta bread like the recipe calls for.
Enjoy!
I've never put mozzarella on my bruschetta. I've always just done it cold on toasted bread. Hmmm...mental note of something to try. As a note for having less soggy bread, cut your bread thinner and toast it under the broiler (about 30 seconds on each side) or on a grill/grill pan before putting the tomatoes on. A french baguette works pretty well to. It's a little more firm. You can also let your tomatoes drain a bit too before putting them on the bread. When tomatoes are back in season (you know, in August) try roma tomatoes and remove the seeds. Less soggy. Also, you can try a caprese salad with the same basic ingredients as the tomato topping, but cube your mozzarella or buy bite sized balls and cut them in half, then dip your bread in it or eat the salad as is and dip your bread in the juices. Blast! I'm going to have to make bruschetta soon.
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