Description
All of the best tips we learned in Italy about how to make classic tomato bruschetta!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 pound ripe tomatoes*, cored and diced
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
- 1/3 cup finely-diced red onion (optional)
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing/drizzling
- fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
- 1 large baguette or a small loaf of crusty bread, thinly sliced*
- 2 large cloves garlic, unpeeled
Instructions
- Prep the tomato topping. Stir together the diced tomatoes, basil, red onion, olive oil and a pinch of salt together in a mixing bowl until evenly combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes or up to 24 hours.
- Toast the bread. Heat oven to 400°F. Arrange the bread slices on a large baking sheet in an even layer. If you would like, brush the bread lightly with olive oil (or you can skip this step). Bake for 7 to 10 minutes — keeping a close eye on the bread so that it doesn’t over bake — until it is toasted and crispy. Transfer baking sheet to a wire cooling rack.
- Add garlic. Slice off the ends of the garlic cloves (without removing the papery skins). Then rub the cut end of the garlic evenly over the tops of the bread slices to add as much or as little garlic flavor as you prefer, to taste.
- Assemble. Taste the tomato topping and season with additional salt (and black pepper, if you’d like) to taste. Add a spoonful of the tomato topping mixture to each slice of bread, then drizzle a hint of olive oil over the tomato topping.
- Serve. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Notes
Tomatoes: Always use the ripest fresh tomatoes that you can find. I typically use cluster tomatoes (a.k.a. tomatoes on the vine), Roma tomatoes or cherry tomatoes.
Bread slices: I recommend slicing the bread approximately 1.5 cm thick to give it the best texture.