There is nothing better in the summer than fresh native tomatoes! Since the weather has been so muggy and warm, I wanted to make something for dinner that was on the lighter side and didn’t need the oven. I made Pioneer Woman’s Pico last weekend with the overabundance of tomatoes I had on hand;
recipe can be found here – http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/pico_de_gallo_a/ so for last night’s dinner I settled on Bruschetta.
Earlier in the day I went to the local market and got a nice loaf of Garlic Ciabatta Bread! The bread was baked with whole gloves of garlic right inside – can it get any better than this?
When looking at the ingredients for homemade salsa and Bruschetta one can see that they are relatively similar. Both use tomatoes and fresh herbs as well as onions, garlic, and kosher salt. One may even add jalapeno peppers to both dishes to give it the extra kick! With Bruschetta, most people will add in fresh pieces of mozzarella which isn’t an ingredient in salsa! Also with salsa, most of the time this is getting served with tortilla chips while Bruschetta is getting served on grilled breads. What it really comes down to is Bruschetta is all about the bread and tomatoes you use!
So to the good stuff; the ingredients I used for this Bruschetta:
*Please note that since I was only using a portion of the loaf I used less tomatoes and other ingredients that one would use if they were serving it for friends or family. I recommend tripling the ingredients if you are serving it for a few people….as you can always save the Bruschetta and serve it up again the next day!
Loaf of Ciabatta Bread – since I was only eating it I only used a quarter of the loaf.
Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
Garlic Powder
2 large tomatoes diced and chopped up
¼ of red onion
¼ yellow onion
Fresh Herbs – I didn’t have any oregano or basil on hand, so I used some cilantro. I used about 3 tablespoons of fresh herbs
¼ cup fresh mozzarella
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut the loaf of bread in half lengthwise and place on cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil; enough to cover bread and sprinkle some kosher salt and garlic powder over. Place in oven and bake until slightly brown. Once done, remove from oven and set aside. *I didn’t toast the bread, only because I was feeling lazy! I prefer it to be toasted, but as you can see you can eat it both way!
3. In medium size mixing bowl, add tomatoes, red and yellow onions, fresh herbs, and mozzarella. Mix well. Add enough olive oil to coat topping. Add some additional garlic powder and kosher salt to toping. After thoroughly mixed, let stand for 5 minutes as the flavors marinate together.
4. Top the tomato mixture over the toasted Ciabatta bread and serve!
If you wanted to, you could also add some parmigiano-reggiano on top!
Enjoy!!
