Balsamic Bruschetta

This is my second recipe post in a week, and I’m starting to feel a bit like Julie Powell, except without the gazillion dollar book deals and the mental trauma of deboning a duck.  Ew.   But there’s a good reason behind my recent burst of epicurean adventures:  ‘Tis harvest season in our garden.  Lettuce, peppers, zucchinis and yellow squash - all ready for picking.  But more than anything, we have an infestation of tomatoes.  I newly understand the motivation of the folks who wrote Attack of the Killer Tomatoes because in our refrigerator this week we had close to a dozen tomatoes and a sizable brood of their little cherry children.  They were wreaking havoc in the fridge, squishing the lettuce and swiss chard and forcing the lemons to loose their plurality in the produce drawer. So before diplomatic negotiations broke down into an all out Veggie War, I decided to sacrifice the Red Scare and make a quick and easy bruschetta.

Admittedly, I was a bit nervous to make bruschetta because Ian doesn’t like tomatoes.  I’m a big fan, though.  In fact, one of my favorite cooking scenes from Julie and Julia (I told you I was starting to feel like Ms. Powell), is when Amy Adams makes a delicious-looking chunky bruschetta from red and yellow tomatoes.  Hoping Ian would like it, I summoned the all-powerful combination of garlic, olive oil and basil chanting the phrase from Captain Planet, “With your powers combined...”

He ate his whole plate.





Balsamic Bruschetta

Ingredients
8 tomatoes, diced
⅓ Cup chopped basil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
Sliced french bread, toasted

1.  Combine the tomatoes, basil, and garlic.
2.  Add in the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Stir.  
3.  Toast the french bread by coating one side of each slice with olive oil, place oil-side down on cookie sheet, and cook for 5 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
4.  Top bread with bruschetta and enjoy!