Blue Willow's Bruschetta

If you grew up in the 90s like me, then much of the recipes in your recipe binder are printouts of emails in small Courier font with the title of the recipe highlighted so you know to skip over Grandma's play-by-play of last month's book club meeting and you can skip straight to the good stuff. This recipe is no exception.

Confession time: I was a very picky eater as a kid. In some ways I still am. I had an anxious relationship with many basic ingredients. Tomatoes, I'm talking about you. I would dip my plain penne into the sauce (on the side) so as not to accumulate tomato chunks on my precious pasta until about age 12...okay 13. You'll notice from my Blackberry Jam post that this was right around the same time that I started my first recipe binder. Parents of picky kids: there is hope for you.

These days, my tomatoes are de-pulped and cut to 1/4 inch precision before being mixed into the 90s email Bruschetta recipe. Why? Because it looks nice.

Momcierge sent home these 5 tomatoes with me. Neighbor offered me access to his A+ basil plant. (Mine is more like C-.) Bruschetta for lunch? Yes please! | #basil #tomatoes #bruschetta #myneighborsbasilisbetterthanmine #lunch #snack #momcierge

A photo posted by BlueWillowKitchen (@bluewillowkitchen) on Aug 11, 2016 at 7:08am PDT

Thanks Frank!

The stars aligned this week for bruschetta. Momcierge sent me home with 5 Roma tomatoes from her garden. August in Jersey is the time of year your home-gardening neighbors start trying to give you produce. Neighbor Frank offered me access to his A+ basil plant. (Mine is more like a C-, I'll get the hang of this plant parenthood thing eventually.) Earlier the same day, I bought a fresh baguette (90 cents, coupon, cue Snoopy dance.)

So for lunch today, I will be lightly toasting my baguette slices before topping with an herbed cheese spread and then with my homemade bruschetta. The only thing that would make it better was if I spent all afternoon reducing a bottle of balsamic vinegar to a glaze and drizzling that on top.

PRINTABLE RECIPE


Ingredients:
1 cup Roma tomatoes, no pulp, ¼ inch diced
½ cup red onion, ¼ inch diced
1 T. minced garlic
2 T. olive oil
2 T. balsamic vinegar
½ t. salt
½ t. pepper
1 T. fresh basil, chiffonade

Directions:
Combine all ingredients, prepared as directed, into a medium bowl. Refrigerate until ready to serve on toasted baguette slices.

Variations:
Spread toasted baguette slices with an herbed cheese spread before topping with bruschetta. Alternatively, dice up mini fresh mozzarella balls from your grocery store's olive bar and mix them in with the bruschetta. You can also grate fresh parmesan cheese on top before serving.