Bruschetta Trio

 

 

Bruschetta is one of my favorite appe­tiz­ers ever. I fell in love when the Chef made it for me the first time. (with the bruschetta, not the Chef, I was already a goner there…) His ver­sion included sun dried toma­toes, pesto, a pun­gent tape­nade, and an arti­san goat cheese. Talk about a mouth­ful of fla­vor!! So many things going on, each one blend­ing in with the sur­round­ing flavors–so yummy! I have since tried count­less ver­sion of bruschetta, pretty much lov­ing every sin­gle one!

We’re offer­ing three dif­fer­ent vari­eties for you to try:

**A straight-up clas­sic ver­sion using heir­loom toma­toes for the most beau­ti­ful look, although reg­u­lar red toma­toes will taste just as great.

**One uti­liz­ing roasted veg­eta­bles, which makes it eas­ier to make when you need to buy veg­gies out of sea­son. Get cre­ative and switch veg­gies around accord­ing to what’s avail­able, the roast­ing instruc­tions are pretty much uni­ver­sal. Mush­rooms and squash will need to either be cut a bit larger, or taken out of the oven sooner.

**Another a unique dessert option that blends some awe­some fla­vors together. If you don’t have or can’t make gin­ger syrup, sprin­kle with a lit­tle raw sugar instead. Although the gin­ger syrup really shouldn’t be missed!

Each great on their own, but dif­fer­ent enough from each other to make a nice appe­tizer trio.

The roasted ver­sion can stand up to hold­ing over a bit, so make it first, the dessert bruschetta is the most del­i­cate. Make it up right before serv­ing.  The fresh­est way to go would be to let guests build their own.

 

Heir­loom Bruschetta

 makes 15–18 bruschetta

15–18 1/4 inch slices of french baguette bread suit­able for bruschetta (i.e. not big, puffy super­mar­ket ‘french bread’. You need the skin­nier, arti­san style baguette)

olive oil

2 large gar­lic cloves–to rub on baguette slices

fresh moz­zarella, sliced quite thin–an imper­fect edge looks best for presentation

2 cups diced heir­loom tomatoes–1/4 inch dice, let drain in a strainer while prepar­ing the rest of ingredients

20 medium fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces or sliced in a small chiffonade

1/2 cup red onion diced very small

2 large cloves of gar­lic, minced fine

kosher  salt and black pep­per, to taste

 

Driz­zle slices of baguette with a bit of olive oil, sprin­kle with salt and pep­per. Rub each slice all over the top with the cut end of a clove of gar­lic and place on a bak­ing sheet. Broil in oven until slices are golden brown and quite crisp. Set aside.

Com­bine the toma­toes, basil, onion, and gar­lic. Don’t over do the stir­ring, you want to leave the toma­toes intact.

Assem­bly: Place moz­zarella slices on toasted baguettes. Spoon tomato/onion mix­ture onto slices. Sprin­kle with kosher salt and pep­per to taste. Serve right away.

 

 

Roasted Veg­gie Bruschetta

makes 15–18 bruschetta

15–18 1/4 inch slices of french baguette bread suit­able for bruschetta (i.e. not big, puffy super­mar­ket ‘french bread’. You need the skin­nier, arti­san style baguette)

olive oil

kosher salt and black pepper

1 cup pesto

6–8 roma toma­toes, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

1 red onion, sliced into 1/4 inch rings

5–6 large cloves gar­lic, leave skins on and smash with the flat side of a large knife

1/2 each yel­low and green pep­per, sliced into 1/4 inch slices

olive oil for roasting

4 oz. goat cheese crumbled

addi­tional olive oil for drizzling

 

Lightly driz­zle olive oil onto slices of baguette and sprin­kle with salt and pep­per. Place on a sheet pan and broil in oven until slices are golden brown and quite crisp. Set aside.

Place sliced veg­eta­bles and gar­lic in a bowl and driz­zle with olive oil and sprin­kle with salt and pep­per. Toss veg­eta­bles until coated with oil. Spread on a bak­ing sheet lined with parch­ment or a sil­pat liner and roast in a pre-heated 400 degree F. oven for 20–25 min­utes. Watch veg­eta­bles dur­ing roast­ing to make sure they don’t over brown. You want some black­en­ing around the edges of the veg­eta­bles, but you don’t want them to melt into obliv­ion. Refer to photo for ref­er­ence. When done, set aside.

Assem­bly: Spread pesto on baguette slices. Remove the skins from the gar­lic and slice thinly. Arrange roasted veg­eta­bles and gar­lic on top of pesto in what­ever way looks best to you, try­ing to put an even amount of each veg­etable on each slice. Sprin­kle with goat cheese. Driz­zle with a bit of olive oil and serve immediately.

 

 

Peach and Black­berry Dessert Bruschetta

 makes 12–15 bruschetta

1/3 cup gran­u­lated sugar

2 table­spoons ground cinnamon

soft but­ter

12–15 1/4 inch slices of french baguette bread suit­able for bruschetta (i.e. not big, puffy super­mar­ket ‘french bread’. You need the skin­nier, arti­san style baguette)

1 cup mas­car­pone cheese

zest from 1 orange

2 table­spoons honey

2 medium free­stone eating-type peaches, peeled and cut into a 1/4 inch dice

12–16 black­ber­ries, halved or quar­tered, depend­ing on the size

6–8 mint leaves, cut into a very fine chiffonade

gin­ger syrup–to driz­zle

 

Mix together gran­u­lated sugar and cin­na­mon. Lightly but­ter the baguette slices and sprin­kle with the cin­na­mon sugar mix­ture. Place on a sheet pan and broil pieces of bread in the oven until crispy golden brown. Make sure they are not soft in the mid­dle. Only lightly but­ter­ing will help keep toasts crisp. The top­ping is quite juicy so a very crisp bread will help bal­ance that.

Stir together the mas­car­pone cheese, honey, and orange zest. Set aside.

Care­fully stir together the peaches, berries, and mint. Take care not to vig­or­ously stir as the fruit is very del­i­cate and you want to main­tain a pretty appearance.

Assem­bly: Right before serv­ing spread a table­spoon or so of the sweet­ened mas­car­pone cheese on the toasted cin­na­mon baguette slices. Care­fully top with peach/berry mix­ture and driz­zle with about a 1/2 tea­spoon of gin­ger syrup. Serve immediately.

 

 

 

Related posts: