Simple Cooking: Best Bruschetta EVER

By Anthony Todd in Food on Mar 12, 2008 5:15PM

Good, healthy appetizers that impress guests can be hard to come by – everything seems to be either wrapped in bacon or filled with expensive ingredients! Plus, your vegetarian guests are getting tired of veggies and dip. Here’s a recipe for the best tomato-based bruschetta you’ll ever make. Your guests will love you, but you’ll never be able to order it at a restaurant again without being disappointed. You may even end up eating the whole order yourself.

Easy Tomato Bruschetta

1 Baguette
4 cloves Garlic, 3 minced, 1 cut in half
1/4 of a small red Onion, chopped
4-5 Roma Tomatoes – see below
1/2 cup Olive Oil
1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar
6-8 big leaves fresh Basil, chopped
Salt

Note on tomatoes: Normally, we’re pretty casual about chopping and measuring, but here is one case where it’s important. Slice the tomatoes crosswise and then cut out the middle – be sure to get all of the seeds and extra liquid. Then just cut the outside into little slices. The goal is to get as much tomato flesh with as little juice as possible. This keeps your bread from getting soggy.

Combine the minced garlic, chopped tomatoes, red onion and basil in a medium bowl. Add olive oil and vinegar and stir it all together – if there isn’t enough liquid to completely coat everything, add more. Add two large pinches of salt, and let the whole mess sit for at least 30 minutes.

Slice the baguette into thin rounds and toast under the broiler. Once the slices are toasted, rub each slice with the clove of garlic. Top with the tomato mix; when you’re spooning the tomatoes out of the bowl, tilt your spoon and let the liquid drain out, as you don’t want a piece of bread drenched in vinegar. Arrange nicely on a place and serve!