Bruschetta first

"How could something so basic be so good?" Nigel Slater

First in so many ways - a first recipe, a first dish in an Italian meal, and possibly one of the first foods eaten around the Mediterranean, at least when the skills of making bread and olive oil had been learnt.

For, as you probably all know, bruschetta does not involve tomatoes. Tomatoes did not come to the Mediterranean until the 14th/15th centuries and even then were not used for a while.

I know I have written about bruschetta before - way back in 2018, I have just discovered, when I called it Bruschetta then and now. So when it turned up as the first recipe in Nigel's first book Real Fast Food I was really tempted to find some way of wriggling out of writing about it again. I even thought of just ignoring it and using some other strategy to pick another recipe from this book that everyone should have on their kitchen shelves. I also considered just doing something based on the 'preliminaries' of the book. But today I have decided to bite the bullet and see if I manage to find anything new to say. And - honestly - at this very moment I'm not sure that I will.

Perhaps these words from that long ago article sum up how I feel at this very moment:

"And really I don't have much more to say and anyway I then found Nigel Slater's article on the perfect bruschetta and wondered why I bother at all with doing this blog. "

And today I found it again and had the same thought. You may have noticed that there have been a few days without a blog post. Mostly it's because I have been busy with other things, but there has certainly been a certain amount of lack of will as well and musings on why indeed do I bother. So here I am having another go and really challenging myself in a way to say something new about bruschetta.

Well here's a sort of an aside - on ASMR:

"Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, is the feeling some people get when watching something stimulating. People have described this sensation as tingly and deeply relaxing" Mashed

Otherwise known as a 'braingasm' and cooking is one example of this. Mashed mentioned a video on TikTok From Daen Lia's Kitchen, that apparently has been classed as an ASMR video. It's very short and has no soundtrack other than the sounds of the process of producing a tomato bruschetta. It apparently has been a sensation. Well it's nice, but I don't think it would help me to sleep. Though it might entice some reluctant cooks to have a go at making bruschetta.

So back to bruschetta the dish.

Simple isn't easy said somebody, but honestly it is - in this case anyway. Although if you are Nigel Slater or other finicky cooks the bread should ideally be from Puglia - or that saltless stuff from Tuscany - but I reckon a good sourdough with holes in it would be OK. It probably goes without saying that the olive oil should be the best you can buy - implying that the best you can buy (or afford) is not good enough. And I have to say that the picture at the top of the page which is from an Italian olive oil producer shows that expensive Italian olive oil is indeed often very green. Mind you Nigel does say:

"The slight heat from the toast will bring out the flavour of the oil. All those peppery, creamy, almondy, grassy backnotes will be all the more noticeable. It is worth trying. Dip raw bread into your best olive oil, then pour some over warm toast and tell me which is best."

Taste is a personal thing isn't it? Maybe your best olive oil, even if it is just from Moro or some other popular brand, is actually OK. Still if you can afford it it may be worth buying something more expensive. Or it might not.

The garlic too:

"must be new. This doesn't necessarily mean green, just plump with plenty of sweet, mild juice."

Maybe one should just substitute 'expensive' for 'simple'

But next time you have a barbecue, maybe start it all off with 'real' bruschetta and don't worry too much about the expense or otherwise of your olive oil. Expensive is not always better after all. And this is how you do it according to Nigel:

"The trick is to pick a plump clove from a tight head and cut in half widthwise. Push the cut side down on the surface of the toast and scrape it across the rough bread. You won't get a fat lot of juice from it. In fact, you may wonder why you bothered - until you taste it. We are after more than a whiff but less than a stink here. Now douse it with oil. Some of it will dribble through the holes, so mind your clothes, but you should use enough that you can almost suck the oil from the bread. This is why it is essential that the oil you choose is one you love rather than simply like."

And if you want to make it fancy you could set out a series of things that people could put on top - those tomatoes perhaps or one of Nigel's other suggestions: eggplant purée from the deli, plus feta and mint; creamed eggs (scrambled with fromage frais ) with grilled spring onions; or Gorgonzola mashed with butter and a few drops of brandy; or Grilled raddichio and goat's cheese - grilled.

Bruschetta is the first recipe in his chapter on Bakery goods and drinks which includes several sandwich recipes - many regard him as the king of sandwiches. He says of them - "Only the generous can make a sandwich worth eating."

As for bruschetta:

"You can have it plain, if you can call crusty Tuscan bread dripping with unctuous oil plain, or you can chuck any sun-ripened ingredient from tomatoes to aubergines on it. The only rule is that it should taste of the sun." Nigel Slater

And on a dull, and chilly day that sounds like a good idea.

YEARS GONE BY

October 12

2025 - Uneasy and undecided

2024 - Waves in the Kitchen - a blog

2023 - Tamarind can do anything

2022 - Why do we celebrate birthdays?

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Jerk from the Caribbean

2018 - Cranberries - intriguing, beautiful, tasty but perhaps not environmentally sound

2017 - Vanilla in Tahiti

2016 - Soup, glorious soup