Classic Tomato Basil Bruschetta
This bruschetta is a classic burst of fresh summer flavours – tomato, basil and garlic, and makes for a perfect appetizer before a big meal, or handed out as a canape.
Ingredients
- 8 ripe vine tomatoes diced
- ½ sourdough bread loaf
- olive oil to brush
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 handful basil leaves chopped
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180degC/355 Fahrenheit.
- Slice sourdough on an angle into ½ cm thick slices. You should end up with 12-18 slices. Brush with olive oil and lay on a baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden and crispy. Cut garlic clove in half and lightly rub raw garlic over bruschetta.
- Place diced tomatoes in a bowl and season with salt, cover and set aside in the fridge for 10 minutes. The salt will draw out some excess liquid from the tomatoes.
- Drain excess liquid from the tomatoes and mix in extra virgin olive oil and basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve bruschetta with the tomatoes and a spoon to allow people to serve themselves.
Notes
With a simple dish such as bruschetta, using the best possible ingredients is key. Ensure your bread is nice and fresh, tomatoes are ripe, basil is fresh and fragrant and extra-virgin olive oil is good quality with a strong aroma. While rubbing the sourdough with the garlic clove may seem odd, it imparts a lot more garlic flavour then you would expect, without the harshness of eating whole chunks of raw garlic.
Although commonly pronounced as ‘bru-shet-ta’, the correct pronunciation for these crispy bread bases is ‘brus-ket-ta’ in Italian.