Bruschetta Recipe

This is a really simple homemade bruschetta recipe for a tasty starter that all your guests will enjoy. (Hints on how to adjust the recipe to your taste at the end!)

Bruschetta pairs perfectly with a crustless quiche as the main meal.  It is a quick, easy, and tasty combination that your family or guests will love.

Bruschetta is usually served as an antipasto (appetizer or starter). However, if you prepare extra or use larger slices of bread, you can make a light meal out of it.

Homemade Bruschetta

Bruschetta is basically slices of toasted bread, spread with olive oil, and heaped with chopped tomatoes and garlic. You can vary the recipe, depending on your tastes, of course, but bruschetta always uses tomatoes. However, you can add in onion, olives, pepper (capsicum), basil, chili, cilantro (coriander), or corn.

In Italy, bruschetta is traditionally grilled on a brustolina – a square sheet of metal with holes in it. The metal sheet sits over a gas burner on the stove, and the bread rests on top. Heat from the stove is distributed evenly across the brustolina, resulting in perfect toast. (However, I have only ever prepared bruschetta in my regular oven and it’s absolutely fine!)

The Italian word “bruschetta” comes from a combination of “bruscare” and “abbrustolire”, both of which mean “toasting’. In the Tuscany region,  bruschetta is called fettunta (“slice in oil”).

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5 from 2 votes

Bruschetta Recipe

This is a really simple Italian bruschetta recipe for a tasty starter that all your guests will enjoy.

Course Appetizer

Cuisine American, Italian

Keyword bruschetta recipe, recipe for bruschetta

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Servings 4 people

Calories 61kcal

Equipment

• Oven

Ingredients

• 3 tomatoes finely diced
• 1 loaf continental bread thickly sliced
• ½ small white onion (optional) finely chopped
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons crushed garlic
• 2 teaspoons basil finely chopped
• salt & pepper to taste
• extra basil leaves to garnish

Instructions

• Lay the slices (approximately 8) of continental loaf on a baking tray.
• Mix the olive oil with the garlic.
• Brush the olive oil and garlic mixture over the slices of bread.
• Bake bread in preheated over for 10 minutes at 355 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celcius), or until golden brown.
• While bread is baking, mix chopped tomatoes with finely chopped basil leaves and onion.
• Top each slice of bread with the basil, tomato, and onion mixture.
• Garnish with a basil leaf.
• Serve immediately (so that the tomato juices don't start to soften the bread).

Video

Notes

Note: The onion is optional in this recipe. For some, the flavor of raw onion is too strong. If that is the case, adjust the quantity to suit you/ your guests. On the flip side, I love onion, so tend to use a whole one.

So quick and easy! I find myself whipping up a batch of bruschetta just before the kids get home from school. They love it, and I love knowing they’re getting an extra serve of vegetables.

Options

Earlier I said that you can vary this homemade bruschetta recipe according to your own tastes. Also according to what’s in season, and what’s in your refrigerator/ pantry. You know that I always love to give you options! Here are some of my favorite options:

• Add in finely diced pepper (capsicum). I use red pepper (capsicum) because it’s slightly sweeter, but you could use orange or yellow. I find green pepper to be too strong and over-powering.
• Include corn kernels in the tomato and onion mixture. It’s an easy way to increase the vegetable content.
• Use finely chopped spring onions instead of the white onion.
• Sprinkle roughly chopped chives on top of the tomato mixture.
• I love cilantro (coriander) so use it instead of basil.
• Mix some very finely chopped chili into the tomato mixture to give the bruschetta some spice.
• Roughly chopped black or green olives and add them into the tomato mixture.
• Turn this into a pesto bruschetta with my amazing pesto sauce

My family tells me this is the best bruschetta recipe – I hope you love it to and find yourself making it again and again!

Until next time…
Love & tasty Italian flavors, Bx