“Day-old bread, month-old oil, and year-old wine”–Italian Proverb

This saying applies to today’s recipe, Bruschetta. Bruschetta, itself, is originally just toasted bread, olive oil and garlic.  It gained in popularity in the different regions of Italy, where they each made their own version.

The most popular version includes the proud colors of the Italian flag. Green = Basil, white =  garlic, red = tomatoes.  This is referred to as bruschetta al pomodoro.

Ours isn’t quite traditional, but it certainly has the flavors of it. We like a more saucy bruschetta, so the bread can absorb some of the Italian flag goodness aka basil, garlic, and tomatoes.

How beautiful is our little basil plant.

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What you need:

• cutting board
• knife
• garbage bowl

Ingredients:

• 5 roma tomatoes
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes (12 oz)
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• Balsamic vinegar (to taste)
• 6 fresh basil leaves
• salt and pepper (to taste)
• 1 baguette cut into slices

Step 1:

Slice tomatoes in half and de-seed. Dice into pieces. Place in a bowl. We don’t mind the skin, so we leave it on.

Step 2:

Peel the garlic and mince. While garlic is still on the cutting board, hit it with some salt here and use the side of your knife, sharp side obviously facing away from you for safety. Use the side of the knife to crush the garlic and salt until it breaks down, its like a paste. Scrape it up from the board and put it into the bowl with tomatoes.

Step 3:

Take the basil leaves and pile them on top of each other. Then roll them up together. Slice thin ribbons of basil and place into the bowl with tomatoes and garlic.

Step 4:

Open the can of crushed tomatoes and dump it into the bowl of tomatoes and friends. Gently mix everything together, adding salt, pepper and balsamic to taste.

Step 5: 

(Optional) You can toast your bread slices in the oven with some olive oil brushed on for a few minutes. We didn’t toast ours because we love the way the bread soaks up the juicy goodness. But traditional Bruschetta  is toasted or grilled.

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Happy Cooking!