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Bruschetta

T

tinker

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Bruschetta is a favourite starter in Italian restaurants. In essence, it's garlic bread with toppings like tomatoes or anchovies or aubergines, etc. Although this garlic bread uses olive oil instead of butter.

Very easy to make though quite refreshing to have. Biting on the combination of crusty garlicky bread soaked in olive oil with fresh tomatoes and basil on top is simply divine.

Bruschetta

slices of crusty bread (ciabatta, baguette, etc.)
olive oil
ripe tomatoes
fresh basil leaves
garlic clove - peeled and sliced in the middle
salt and pepper

Halve tomatoes crosswise. Scoop out the seeds, discard. Chop roughly.
In a bowl, put the tomatoes and season well with salt and pepper.
Tear basil leaves and mix with the tomatoes.
Toast, grill, or broil the bread until well browned on both sides.
While still hot, rub the cut side of the garlic on the toasted bread.
Drizzle or brush olive oil on top.
Spoon mounds of tomatoes on top of the toasted bread. Serve immediately.
 
Another good addition is making a creamy spread of ricotta and feta cheese with herbs and spreading that on the bread, and also using kalamata olives gives a greek twist.
 
If you were to make a big batch of this.. Would you be able to freeze it?:rolleyes:
 
Good Morn. to you Redneck!!! I think you'd not want to freeze this, it is something you want made fresh and preferrably right before sitting down to eat!
 
The Kretans have their own version of a greek bruschetta called Dakos. We use "paximadi" which is a very dark dried bread made out of bulgur wheat. During the German occupation of WWII when it was difficult to come and go to the bakery people would bake their own bread at home. To preserve it they would dry it and it keeps indefinitely. It is the most used bread in Krete. They make many varieties these days using white bread, sesame, etc, and you can buy it at mediterranean specialty stores, though Kretans to this day prefer the bulgur wheat version.

To be eaten easily the bread is rehydrated by being run under the faucet until it is wet. Leave on aplate and within 2-3 minutes it is soft enough to eat.

Our everyday after school snack was this bread, drizzled with fresh olive oil, topped with a freshly crushed tomatoes, sprinkled with salt and oregano, and sometimes topped with crumbled feta.
 
And yet, when I was growing up, our neighbors down the block wouldn't touch it, because they associated it with deprivation.

I don't know if they were from Crete or not. We just knew them as Greek. But I remember the argument that took place when they had a family reunion and somebody brought paximadi.

Goodness, it's been decades since I even thought of them.

I have friends who won't eat game for the same reason. The grew up dirt poor, and game was all they had to eat. So now they associate it with poverty.

Although the differences blur among toasts, the hallmark of bruschetta is that it's first toasted---ideally on a grill---and then rubbed with raw garlic and brushed with olive oil. This is how it differs from, say, crostini, which may or may not have the garlic rub.
 
I do not know any greeks who eat paximadi - usually only Kretans.
 
You could use crusty French Bread to make Bruschetta, It's like a French, Italian dish. I Love A Good Bruschetta as an appetiser with some wine. cookie :)
 
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