Semiserious Chefs

I sliced this baguette bread at an angle. Doing this not only enhances the presentation of the meal but it also improves the deliciousness factor of the meal by an astonishing 50%.

Quite honestly, I don’t know why I haven’t shared this simple recipe for bruschetta with everyone yet. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t know why there aren’t more recipes in general on this site yet. It’s really kind of pathetic if you think about it. But so goes the food blogging life when we’re us, I guess. Baymax from Big Hero 6 sums it up quite nicely when he says “I am not fast.” And that’s exactly how it is when it comes to Vanessa and I  adding new recipes to the blog. And yes that is a link to a YouTube video. Wait, maybe I will embed it. Yeah, I think I will do that. Here’s the embedded video:

But let me get back to the recipe. Bruschetta, pronounced: “bruh-sketta” if you’re Italian or snooty, is a starter dish – otherwise known as an antipasto – made of grilled bread, garlic, and olive oil. I’ll get to what an antipasto is later, but most likely I’ll forget about it and not say anything else on the matter. You’ll usually find bruschetta topped with basil, tomato, and perhaps some onion as well. However, it can also be topped with different sorts of cured meats and/or cheeses.

I didn’t use any onion in this recipe, but I encourage any individual who likes onion to not hesitate in tossing a few in from time to time. Also, I like to add a few dashes of crushed red pepper to mine, which I also conveniently left out of the recipe. Something important to keep in mind with this recipe however, is that you should be on the conservative side when it comes to how much garlic you want to use. It can get too much of that garlicky heat quickly. And if you have a garlic press, I would recommend using it. I only say that because I just recently purchased a garlic press and it works quite nicely even though it was one of the cheaper models.

Quantity not quality, that’s what I always say. And here’s a good example of this mind set. I have a ton of dull chef’s knives just hanging out in a kitchen drawer (droor?), on the off chance that someone were to gift us a wet stone so I could actually sharpen all the knives, because we all know I will never remember to go out and buy one myself. I suppose the knives could also function as nice bludgeoning weapons if someone were to ever try and break in the house.

So do we use those dull knives when cooking?  Let me answer that with a declarative sentence that ends with a question mark. We definitely don’t use the dull knives when we’re cooking, because you’re more likely to get cut using a dull knife than a sharp one? And who wants to get cut in the kitchen when you can get burned by the broiler instead? Seriously, I burn myself more than the recommended amount.

Oh hey, let me say something about the basil. You can rip whole leaves into pieces and top directly on the toasted bread prior to adding the tomato and pimiento mixture, or you can incorporate sliced/chopped basil directly in with the tomatoes and pimientos. Which ever way you choose, just remember to get the freshest basil you can. If you decide on adding sliced basil directly in with the tomato and pimiento topping, it might possibly make the process a little quicker. The general recommendation is to stack the leaves of basil on top of each other and roll them up like a cigar or a tightly rolled burrito. Then simply slice the basil up as you would do with celery. I hope that makes sense. In other words, cut the basil widthwise and not lengthwise.

The last thing I should probably talk about is the presentation. And believe it or not this might end up being one of the shortest blog posts I’ve ever written. So some people like to mix all the ingredients in one bowl and simply serve it with the grilled bread and a spoon so everyone can sort of make their own bruschetta. I like this method because there’s less work involved. You can just toss all the ingredients together, give it a stir, and call it good. Everyone can get exactly how much they want.

On the flip side, you can spoon the mixture on the toasted bread ahead of time and serve on a large platter. While not the most efficient use of space, one could argue that this presentation looks better. I personally think it looks better, but it does require more work on your part. Especially if you plan on ripping off chunks of basil and topping each slice of bread individually. And to make things look even fancier, try slicing your bread at an angle. Trust me, it really does make this dish taste 50% better.

The recipe that follows works out fine for the amount of bread we use. I would like to say it’s a pretty standard baguette size, but you never know. You might need to adjust things accordingly. Adding onions will further bulk out the amount of topping you have for the toasted bread.

So there you go. Simple bruschetta with plenty of room for experimentational (I just made that word up) purposes. I was going to say “plenty of room for improvement” but I think that goes without saying. Anyway, let us know what you think in the comments below. And as always…until next time…

I had two nice looking basil leaves for garnish on that plate but it’s hard to see them. Cool story huh?