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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.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Course Appetizer and Starters
Servings 4
Calories 238 kcal
Dairy Free, Diabetic

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.