Fresh Tomato Bruschetta
Toasty slices of baguette topped with fresh garden tomatoes, garlic, and basil. Fresh Tomato Bruschetta is a quick and easy summer appetizer and a wonderful way to use up garden veggies!
This post is originally from 2012, but I dug it out and gave it some new photos because I was gifted tons of fresh garden tomatoes over the weekend!! Some of my favorite recipes are the oldies.
Since I returned from La-La-Vacationland a little over a week ago I've spent most of my time indulging in a few of my favorite summer flavors before they are gone, gone, gone until next year. I'm eating peaches everyday. Three times a day.
I'm putting blueberries in all the baked goods (see: Blueberry Biscuit Bombs and Orange Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins). Breakfast BLT's have become a staple. Tomatoes and basil have made their way into every evening meal.
These fresh flavors are so far the only high points to be found in these few weeks between beach vacation and back-to-school. We are stuck in the North Carolina August summer limbo; the afternoon storms have all but ceased, the sticky heat seems relentlessly hotter.
Backpacks, notepads, and No.2 pencils are just around the bend, but the weeks ahead have thus far dulled the excitement of a new year and old friends.
I am ready for jacket weather. I miss my hair straightener. And scarves.
There are only a few highlights to the summer's end drudgery. Garden tomatoes and basil are pretty high up on my list.
Tomato bruschetta is the very first thing that came to mind when my neighbor gifted me a 5-gallon bucket full of fresh garden tomatoes. It didn't hurt that I needed an excuse to use up some of the basil from my basil bush plant that is all but shading the green beans at the back of my garden.
Amazon basil. Forreal.
So instead of dwelling on the fact that my tank tops are feeling tired and my hair is feeling frizzy (not the good beach kind of frizzy but the why-have-those-curls-escaped-my-elastic-and-proceeded-to-stick-straight-out-just-above-my-ears kind of frizzy), or wondering how early is too early to start decorating for Halloween, I have busied myself with dicing absurd amounts of tomatoes. And chopping basil by the pound.
This big pile of fresh tomato bruschetta and a few slices of balsamic marinated grilled chicken was called dinner. Truth be told, I would have gotten along just fine without the chicken.
Except the next morning I had leftover bruschetta topped with a perfectly medium poached egg.
And then I remembered why I'm glad it's still summer.
- 3-4 large fresh tomatoes, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, very finely minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 loaf baguette or other crusty bread, sliced on a bias to create more surface area for the topping
- sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil
- Pre-heat the oven to 450.
- Place your tomatoes in a medium bowl. Add the garlic and toss to coat. I like to drain the excess tomato juice with a fine strainer at this point.
- Put the tomatoes and garlic back in the bowl and toss with the olive oil.
- On a rimmed baking sheet line up the sliced baguette. Dip a brush into the oil in the tomato/garlic mixture and brush the exposed side of the bread.
- Put the pan in the oven and toast for 1-2 minutes. Remove from the oven and flip the bread.
- Spoon the tomato mixture onto each slice. Sprinkle with a dab of sea salt and freshly cracked pepper.
- Bake for only 5 or 6 minutes; the edges of the bread will begin to brown.
- Remove from the oven and garnish each piece with the basil.
Love Summer Vegetables? You'll also love these...
Summer Vegetable Skillet Pizza
My favorite summer food is a tomato and pesto sandwich. Luckily, the basil is going crazy here & I'll be making more pesto next week!
Ohhhh basil pesto. Love.
Bruschetta is my favorite!!! I'll have to try this!
I had no idea you loved bruschetta! I need to make you some with the tomatoes from my garden!
OMG I love bruschetta!!! Oh man, I put fresh mozzarella on it and bake it in the oven, soft bread is the best...god I want that right now haha YUM~!!!!
I like the outside of the bread to be crispy toast and the inside to be super squish. IN FACT, I think I need to make some more bruschetta STAT.
Thats exactly how I like it! It's the only way to eat it, it's so good, yumm!!!!
This looks delicious. I really like the chicken added to it. We have to enjoy the lake at least one more time this summer. No rain!
We ate the grilled chicken on the side... super great meal! Hope the weather cooperates.
I can imagine what summer limbo feels like! That bruschetta looks faaainne. Fresh seasonal ingredients can take even the simplest dish and make it go boom. Love the runny egg on top!
I love a poached egg. Yuuummmm. Summer limbo is lame. And because we're in the south our summer drags on far too long for me. Things like tomato bruschetta and peach cobbler make it bearable, though!
I live in perpetual summer! Interspersed with a monsoon. Peach cobbler...I ought to make some~
mmmmm, I haven't made bruschetta in awhile! I should try this. And ugh, I'm the same way with the weather....Kinda love the summer but excited for fall!
Make some make some!!
I'm ready for the mosquitoes to go on vacation.Just waiting for fall to happen...
Love bruschetta (although being a cheese-phobe, mine stays cheese free!) I even mastered the we-have-no-oven-but-it's-summer-so-I-still-must-have-bruschetta bruschetta and it's just as yummy! I also love sitting on the balcnony with tomato, basil and mozarella (yes, the cheese-phobe gets lost on this one, I don't get it either) salad with a bit of rocket and oregano and almost a whole bottle of olive oil (no exagerration whatsoever!) and in the evenings, spaghetti with...guess what...fresh chopped tomatoes and fresh basil stirred in. Also, please don't mention back to school yet! I'm already starting the school dreams - yuk yuk yuk!
Oh, sorry, Rachael- didn't mean to freak you out with school chatter. My sister teaches; I think she's back next week. And I made that exact pasta dish the other night... tomatoes, basil, and linguini. Mmmmmmm. You are so smart to make bruschetta with no oven! That's skills right there.
I had something like this in Barcelona in January and I've been making it since. Of course I say that loosely because my culinary abilities are in now way sufficient to replicate such a dish...but I do my best.
This is a confusing time for sure! I totally agree with you Heather.
I bet whatever you had in Barcelona would put this to shame... but fresh ingredients are the key to making this taste good. No culinary skills required.
So glad I'm not the only one that's confused right now...
Absolutely great way to show off those tomatoes, especially when you stick an egg on top. Divine.
That breakfast... ohhh that breakfast.
Oh Heather, I love bruschetta! I happen to have some gorgeous tomatoes in the fridge and a huge pot of basil on my windowsill so I know what I'm having for lunch today. Thank you for the inspiration! x
You're welcome, Nickki! Have some for me!
I squealed at the bruschetta, such a favourite 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Oh me, too! Tomato season is fantastic.
Yum is right!!!
Thanks! I think I could survive on this stuff.
Oh yummy! This looks terrific!
Thanks! Loving fresh tomatoes and basil.