Bruschetta are often a bad idea at parties. They can be messy and difficult to eat with in front of people, but I made these for my family for Mother's Day and they were devoured so I think they might be worth it.
For me, the trick to a good bruschetta is the bread. When the bread is too toasted, that's when it gets difficult to eat. So these ones I worked to not over toast and I think I found the perfect balance to toasty by still soft to easily bite into without it crumbling apart.
I also used only fresh ingredients for the topping and I think it made all the difference. Our local fruit market sells these huge bags of fresh basil for $1.99 and it really was much better than using dried. This is certainly a keeper!
Ingredients
- 6 tomatoes (most recipes recommend Roma tomatoes because they are less juicy inside, but I used regular tomatoes because they were redder and I simply scooped out the seeds and juices)
- 1/2 cup sundried tomatoes, diced
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 fresh basil, chopped
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- french baguette
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions
Prep all the ingredients -- dice fresh and sundried tomatoes, garlic and basil.
(I scooped out all the middle of the tomato because you don't want all that extra liquid)
Mix tomatoes, garlic, oil, vinegar, oil, basil and salt and pepper together. Let rest for 15 minutes while flavours blend together.
(this smells amazing!)
Set your oven to broil.
Slice the french stick into 1/4 inch slices. The bigger the angle you cut them on, the bigger the piece will be. (I used one and a half french sticks to get 20 slices, which was the perfect amount for the topping).
Paint each piece of bread with oil on one side and lay flat, oil side up, on a baking sheet and broil for two minutes until getting very lightly toasted.
Remove from oven and top each piece with the tomato mixture and then some mozzarella cheese and put back in oven (still on broil) for five minutes until cheese is melted and bread is toasted but still soft.
Remove from oven and place on platter and serve to a hungry crowd (who are already armed with side plates and napkins!)
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