What a depressing week (weatherwise)! It’s been so windy and rainy this week, day after day after day after day. This morning it was only 2 degrees… For the people who don’t know me; I’m a summer person; I love the sun, my preferred temperature is 25 degrees and when the sun shines my energy boosts!!
I love sitting outside, reading a book or just chatting with my friends. My food choice is often focused on those kind of atmospheres; small snacks, eating bits and pieces, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I’m just trying to hold on to the coziness of the moment. After this it won’t surprise you that I love cooking and mainly eating tapas.
Last year my friends and I visited Granada for a weekend; we were all excited and looking forward to nice weather, some shopping, visiting the Alhambra and most important of all; tapas and wine! The first evening we planned to visit the Alhambra. Before the visit we sat down for dinner; the restaurant didn’t have tapas so we chose Gazpacho and Paella; and it was nice. After the Alhambra visit we were hungry again, so we gave it another try; we ordered Patatas Bravas to start with and seriously you won’t believe it but we got poorly fried French fries with tomato ketchup…. We were hugely disappointed!!! The day after we did some shopping and ended up (after a long search at the corner of our apartment) in a very small bar where we stayed for dinner. This time we were lucky! The tapas were amazing!!! They were not standard at all; they served everything on a small piece of roasted bread and the combinations and flavours were really good!! It got me inspired!
Since then I’m making all kinds of bruschetta’s and I would like to share some of them with you; it’s really easy to make; they look awesome, colorful and impressive. On top of all that the taste is really good!
Basic ingredients for bruschetta’s out of 1 ciabatta:
- 1 ciabatta
- olive oil
- pepper
- additional ingredients: see recipe
How to prepare:
When making bruschettas I start with a ciabatta bread; bake the bread in the oven, based on the instructions on the package. Make sure it’s cooled down before you cut it into nice slim slices. Put the slices on a griddle. Now you can just choose what kinds of topping you give your bruschettas. Below you’ll find some examples that I really like. The indicated time and costs are based on preparing bruschettas from one ciabatta, using all recipes below.
Bruschettas with tomatoes
- Basic ingredients
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2 red onion
- fresh basil leaves
Put some olive oil in a small bowl, add crushed garlic and set it aside so that the garlic can really get into the olive oil. I always take out the middle part of the garlic (the root) since your body cannot process it, what leads to some of the smell the next day. In the meantime boil some water for the tomatoes, make a small cross in the upper skin of the tomatoes and put them in a bowl. Poor the boiling water over it. You’ll see that the skin of the tomatoes is loosening from the tomatoes; drain down the water and rinse the tomatoes with some really cold water. Peel of the skin, take out the pulp and cut the tomatoes in very small blocks. Chop the onion in very small blocks and mix the onion and the tomatoes with a bit of olive oil. Cut the basil in small pieces. You can also cut them with a pair of scissors. Use the oil with garlic to grease the bread slices, make sure that you cover all of them and put them under the grill for about 2 minutes until they have a very nice light brown glance, they should be somewhat soft on the bottom and nice and crispy on the top. Be careful that you don’t grill the bread to long, it will turn black in a blink of an eye. Put the tomatoes and basil on top and add some fresh pepper.
Bruschettas with salmon and avocado
- 100gr smoked salmon
- 1 avocado
- 1/2 red onion
- juice from half a lime
Cut the salmon into small pieces, same for the avocado (small long slices) and cut the onion in small rings. The start for this bruschetta is the same as above; prepare the oil and garlic and bake the slices of bread in the grill until they are soft on the bottom and nice and crispy on the top. Cover them with a small slice of salmon, a piece of avocado and some onions. Sprinkle a bit of the lime juice on top so that the avocado doesn’t get brown further it also gives a fresh taste to the salmon. Add some fresh pepper as a finishing touch.
Bruschettas with goat cheese and raspberries
- 100gr soft goat cheese
- raspberries
- 3 tablespoons of honey
- fresh thyme
- roasted almonds
- juice of 1/4 of a lemon
For this bruschetta we will use a honey sauce for the grilling instead of the olive oil. Put a small saucepan on the stove; add honey, olive oil, lemon juice, fresh thyme (chopped) and pepper to the melting honey. When it’s sweet and warm, take the pan of the stove and grease the top of the breads with the honey sauce, bake the slices of bread in the grill until they are soft on the bottom and nice and crispy on the top. Make sure you have some sauce left. Cut the raspberries in small slices, cut the almonds until they are approx. 1/4 of the original size. Cover the breads with the soft goat cheese and decorate with the raspberries and almonds. Finally, sprinkle some of the honey sauce on top.
Bruschettas with parma ham and fresh figs
- 100gr parma ham
- 2 fresh figs
- balsamico
- 1 garlic clove
The start of this bruschetta is the same as with the first recipes; prepare the oil and garlic and bake the slices of bread in the grill until they are soft on the bottom and nice and crispy on the top. Cover the breads with a small layer of the ham. Cut the figs into small slices and decorate the bruschetta with them, finally sprinkle some balsamico on top of the bruschetta.
Bruschettas with parma ham and mango
- 100gr parma ham
- 1/2 mango
- fresh basil
- balsamico
The start of this bruschetta is the same as with the first recipes; prepare the oil and garlic and bake the slices of bread in the grill until they are soft on the bottom and nice and crispy on the top. Cover the breads with a small layer of the ham. Cut the mango into small slices and decorate the bruschetta with the mango. Cut the basil into small pieces and add some basil leaves. Finally sprinkle some balsamico on top of the bruschetta. As a nice variation you can also add some small pieces of mozzarella onto this bruschetta.
I say; cheers to a lovely Sunday afternoon during the fall, that taste like summer!
Very nice! Believe me, I know 🙂