Nothing says ‘Italy’ or ‘Mediterranean’ like bruschetta.  Crispy hot toast, covered in garlic, tomato, onion and fresh parsley and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.  Just yumm and also pretty much the first recipe I taught my dad to make.  Now just for you to know, both my parents are the cooks of the family and I have vivid memories of standing next to dad near the stove, trying to look over his shoulder, barely managing to look into the pots, following instructions, smelling the wonderful smells coming out of those pots and wondering what he was stirring away!

So back to bruschetta.  There are a lot of different versions out there, for example these 12 recipes by Rachael Ray.  My favourite however, is the classic bruschetta with fresh Maltese tomato, shallots and onion, fresh garlic and parsley.  And it is super easy to make!

Ingredients:

• 2 Medium Size Plum Tomato – you can also use Italian Roma tomatoes or cherry tomato, as long as they have lots of flavour in them
• 1 Medium Size Onion – white or red doesn’t matter, what you prefer
• 1 Large Garlic Clove
• a Good Sprinkle of fresh Parsley, washed and cut finely
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Pepper & Salt

Method:

Wash and peel your medium size tomatoes, then dice them fine. I do like ’em a bit larger cut, so they don’t get mushy too quickly. (I’ll explain later).  Cut the garlic and the onion fine, so you get little bits of crunch.  Same for the parsley.

Mix this all in a bowl and add on pepper and salt.  Then add Olive oil just enough to nicely coat all the ingredients.  Stir gently so all the goodies are nicely mixed.

*update*  At this point you have 2 options:  either you serve straight away, just making sure the mix is fresh, and put on hot toast. This is perfect if you fancy bruschetta right away and can’t wait to try it.

Alternatively (and this is my favourite) I leave my bruschetta mix overnight in the fridge, covered.  This gives all the flavours plenty of time to settle and balance out, without making the tomato pieces too soft and mushy.  The fruit has lost some of its juice too, which you mix in with the olive oil, so you have a lovely sauce (if you can really call it a sauce?)

Suggestion to serve:  I like to toast slices of French baguette, and add the ice cold bruschetta mix on the still hot toast.  It keeps the toast nice and crispy with the juice and flavour of the mix.

Alternatively, you can also prep the toast, add the mix, add Mozzarella and quickly grill this under a hot grill right before serving…… Or you can add basil into the mix…… Or crumble in Feta cheese, but then adjust the amount of salt…… Or drizzle with balsamic glaze…..Or mix in some avocado…

What is your suggestion?