Tomato Bruschetta - the Best Appetizer "Made in Italy”
Secrets of Italian Bruschetta
Bruschetta is a classic Italian appetizer-antipasto, that is, a kind of "aperitif" before the main dish-pasta. In Italy, bruschetta is so popular that you can make a separate cookbook from the recipes for its preparation – with prosciutto ham, tomatoes, Basil, mozzarella, olives, and so on and so on.
The Italian verb "bruscare", from which the word" bruschetta "comes, means"to fry/bake on coals". Indeed, the mainstay of bruschetta is fresh slightly toasted bread.
Of course, ideally, when the crispy crust is achieved on the grill, as it has been done for decades. But modern gastronomic realities are such that bread for bruschetta is often simply fried in a frying pan or dried in the oven.
So, what is bruschetta? To answer this question, let's look a little into history.
The origin of bruschetta is very obscure. Even the Italians themselves can not say exactly where, when and who came up with this snack. However, it is known for certain that even in Ancient Rome, toasted slices of bread were used for tasting freshly squeezed olive oil. At the same time, the oil-soaked pieces were lightly rubbed with garlic – this helped to feel the aroma of the oil. By the way, this method of assessing the quality of olive oil is still used in Lazio, Tuscany, Umbria and other regions that grow olives.
According to another version, La bruschetta is a poor man's dish. When the peasants went to work in the fields, they took bread with them to eat during the Siesta. In the heat, the bread quickly became stale, and in order to somehow "revive" it, the workers dipped the bread in olive oil.
Whatever the truth, one thing is clear: bruschetta is toasted to a crisp, grated with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. And all. Real, native Italian, bruschetta is just bread, garlic and butter.
What about prosciutto, tomatoes, Basil, mozzarella and other "condiments"? you ask. All this appeared much later, when bruschetta from a poor man's sandwich began to transform into an appetizer to whet the appetite.
So be careful: if you order "bruschetta" in Italy, you will most likely be served bruschetta in its traditional sense, that is, just slices of bread with butter and garlic. But if you ask the waiter to bring you "bruschette", that is, in the plural, you will get a plate of bruschetta with all sorts of fillings.
In addition, the "filling" of bruschetta depends on what region of Italy you are in. So, in Tuscany, they prefer "classics", in the town of Alba they season the appetizer with truffles, in Naples and Piedmont they add tomatoes, in Calabria – pepper and oregano.
Although the essence of this does not change – bruschetta is eaten before serving the main dish, soup or pasta.
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 4 pieces white bread
- 3 pieces tomatoes
- 30 milliliters olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 10 grams balsamic cream
- ground black pepper, to taste
- salt, to taste
- 30 grams herbs
Instructions
- Fry the bread in a dry pan or in the oven until Golden brown. In the oven, it will take three to five minutes (depending on the size of the bread slice) at a temperature of 400 °F.
- Cut tomatoes into cubes with a rib about half a centimeter. Finely chop three cloves of garlic.
- Heat a frying pan, pour in a little olive oil and pour in the tomatoes and garlic. Cook them for a minute or two, just to warm them up without losing the taste of fresh tomatoes. Then drop the balsamic cream into the pan, mix and remove from the heat.
- Toasted bread soak the remaining olive oil, pouring a little on each slice. Top with warm tomatoes, salt to taste, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and chopped herbs-any that will be at hand. And serve as an appetizer — for example, with wine.
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