Cheesy Heirloom Tomato Bruschetta
Both Saturday night and Sunday we ate Bruschetta! I kicked it up a bit this year by baking it with cheese. Very, very good!!! Sunday my sister made it with our roma tomatoes. People always assume that romas are just cooking tomatoes. No way! With meaty, thick walls they cut into excellent 'pieces', perfect for this recipe! So use regular red romas OR use our greenhouse heirlooms! I use mostly 'stuffer' type heirlooms, the ones that are accordian, ruffled shape for good pieces, then some beefy other colourful ones I used Yellow Ruffled, Pink Zapotec, Black Krim (not a ruffle, but meaty with excellent flavour!), Green Zebra (great look and flavour, but pretty juicy!) & Flamme (awesome bright orange and meaty!) and other various types like Costoluto Genovese!
Jessie's Cheesy Heirloom Tomato Bruschetta:
6-10 medium Tomatoes*
8 cloves Garlic minced* (oh yes, perhaps more, esp. if they are small cloves!!)
1 medium sweet white onion, chopped*
big handful of Basil Leafs chopped finely*
2 tbs Olive Oil
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbs sugar
12 or so slices light rye bread
another 2 tbs Olive Oil & 1 tbs Butter
1 cup mozzarella cheese
Chop tomatoes into small cubes. Add half the minced garlic, entire chopped onion, 2 tbs Olive Oil, salt and pepper to taste & sugar & all the basil. Mix well. Let marinate in fridge for a long time (0vernight is best, but if you only have a few hours, it will still be ok). You can give this a shot of balsamic vinegar if you want too! I left it out last time and it was fine. Pre-heat oven to 375. Place rye bread on baking sheets. Melt butter on stove top and add rest of minced garlic. Barely cook, just until you can really smell the ol' garlic! Use a generous spoon and add the garlic butter to coat each piece of rye bread. Meanwhile strain your tomato mixture. (Reserve the juice for dipping later. Your bruschetta will be soggy if you don't strain the juice.) Add a generous spoon full of tomatoes and basil mixture on each bread slice. Add a dollop of cheese on top of that. Bake for 20 minutes or so, until rye bread is toasted, cheese is bubbly. Absolute heaven! Use the left over marinate juices as a dip if desired...
(*produce we have available at markets!)
