Recipe: Bruschetta

I love Italian food. There is just something about Italian food that makes you feel warm inside. Its comforting, indulgent, but flavoursome and relatively healthy, and most Italian cooking is relatively simple, which makes it super-easy to cook at home.

I have a glut of Italian recipes that I cook on a regular basis, from a simple pizza base to a rich slow cooked ragu, or a simple carbonara-style pasta.

But, this recipe is something that I love, but very rarely cook at home. It only needs the simplest of ingredients, but makes a meal more packed with flavour, whilst still being filling, fresh, tasty and relatively healthy.

An Italian favourite - Bruschetta!

And the best thing about this recipe - it only calls for a few ingredients that most will have in the cupboard or the fridge anyway

The main ingredient for this recipe: Tomatoes. I just happened to have this punnet of cherry tomatoes in my fridge, and they ended up being the inspiration for this recipe.

Tomatoes really are an amazing ingredient - they are so versatile and can be used in so many things, and its wonderful how different varieties have such a vast amount of flavour.

These cherries were amazingly sweet, and perfect for a bruschetta.

I started by chopping about half of these into quarters and placing them in a large bowl. Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and toss so that all the tomatoes are coated.

The next thing was the herbs. I added the following:

A teaspoon each of:

Garlic powder (or a couple of cloves of fresh garlic is even better if you have it, grated or finely chopped)

Chilli flakes

Basil

Oregano

(you could also add a finely chopped red onion at this point too, but I didn't have any in the cupboard at this point)

Obviously fresh herbs will always give you a more intense flavour, but dried herbs are much more cost effective.

Once again, toss the tomatoes so that the herbs are even distributed and all the tomatoes are coated in the oil and herb mixture. Set aside.

The next bit is easy - make some toast. I used two slices for my lunch, but I was feeling extra hungry!

Usually, one slice would be plenty.

Once your toast is done how you like it, put is on a plate and spoon the tomato mixture on top - don't forget the oily dressing at the bottom of the bowl - that's delicious when soaked into the toast!

A delicious lunch for me!

This obviously would work really well as a starter too, and you could make it look a lot prettier than I did if you wanted to impress...

I have also tried this with melted goat's cheese and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar....