Yummy Spicy Bruschetta

          I love bruschetta. It is simple, flavorful and celebrates what Italians do best: the tomato (what you thought it was pizza and spaghetti?)!  However I am not Italian so to my true Italians out there, turn away! This may get weird!

         My recipe is based on the traditional bruschetta but with a twist...it's spicy, well spicy-ish.  Let me preface this by stating that bruschetta is served HOT, not cold. So all you American cooks out there claiming to be making bruschetta by dicing up some tomatoes and serving it on bread: you're wrong!  You made a crostini, which may be served cold or hot.

Bruschetta = HOT. Crostini = cold. Got it? Good.

If you are going to make this bruschetta it is best to plan and prep ahead of time.  Make up the tomato topping as early as the night before so all the flavors have time to marinate and get friendly with each other.  However, if you are in a bind this will still taste pretty darn good made last minute, just not as good as it could be.

Ingredients:

6 roma tomatoes

1 bunch fresh basil

1 cup shredded Parmesan 

2 tsp garlic

3-4 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 Tbs red pepper flakes or to taste

1 long loaf french bread

(I just heard all my Italian friends throw their hands up and scream at me in Italian)

1. Tomatoes: Slice the stem end off all your tomatoes, then quarter them length wise.  This exposes the seeds inside making it easy to gut the seeds (see picture above). Clean out the seeds and discard. Dice the rest of the tomato and place in a bowl.

 

2. Basil: Dice your basil roughly.  The pictures above show what I found to be the best method for chopping fresh basil: Lay your leaves flat on top of each other then roll them all up and dice them that way.

3. Add your garlic, salt, red pepper flakes, and 1/2 c. Parmesan (save the rest for later). Combine well, cover and let sit in the fridge as long as you can! 

Bruschetta topping, YUM!

4. Turn on your broiler, it should automatically go to 500*

5. Bread: Slice your bread into half-inch pieces at an extreme angle.  You want a large surface area of bread with out it being too thick. Lay them all out flat on a pan and under the broiler toast them for 2-ish minutes, flipping half way though.  Toasting the bread fortifies them as a great base for the juicy tomato mixture!

6. Put it together! Spoon on the tomato mixture onto each slice of bread then top with a little more Parmesan.  Pop those bad boys back under the broiler for a few more minutes until cheese is melted (around 2-3 minutes).

Ecco! (That's "ta-da" in Italian!)

Enjoy!