Having been to about 237 weddings in my life, I have eaten my fair share of bruschetta. And quite happily, might I add! There's something about the summery fresh tomatoes on the little slices of bread that just makes my heart happy.
Last summer, having never made bruschetta before in my life, I blended up a few tomatoes from our garden, tossed in some minced onion (which apparently is not part of the real recipes 😂), added a little bacon leftover from breakfast, and served it to T.J. and I on leftover french bread from Target. And oh. my. word. I think we ate it approximately a 48 times last year.
The recipe is quite simple, and you can alter it a few different ways to fit your style and what's already in your refrigerator, cause let's be real that's the majority of my method when it comes to cooking ---- let's see... I have eggs, half a yam, BBQ sauce and leftover rice... what can I do... 😂
BRUSCHETTA WITH BACON + BASIL
- Two large handfuls of cherry/grape tomatoes (or 2 medium sized tomatoes)
- 1 tbsp finely diced red onion
- Fresh basil, chopped
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 3-4 sliced bacon, cooked and chopped
- Salt to taste (if not using bacon)
- Olive oil
- Baguette or small sized french bread (I usually get this bread from Target)
- Balsamic glaze (like this stuff)
*Note: I don't really measure anything when I make this recipe. I base it off of how much bread I have left to work with, or how many tomatoes I have ripe from the garden. You can make as much or little as you'd like, don't over think it!
DIRECTIONS
Slice your baguette into thin slices. I did 18-20 slices for this recipe. Brush both sides of the bread with olive oil and lay them out on a cookie sheet. Bake or broil on LOW until lightly toasted on both sides! Mmmmmmm! While the bread gets toasty....
Roughly dice tomatoes by hand, or in a small food processor, and dump into your mixing bowl. Finely chop the red onion and basil and add to bowl. (Sometime's I'll put both the onion and basil into my food processor, and blend them together to save time!) Add chopped bacon. Add garlic. Drizzle mixture with a heavy hand of olive oil. Salt to taste only if you've omitted the bacon, otherwise the bacon is salty enough.
Once the bread has been toasted and is cool enough to pick up, top each slice of bread with a large spoonful of bruschetta! Try not to just eat it by the spoonful while you work. Lastly, top it all off with a drizzle of balsamic glaze.
If by chance you don't want to plate your bruschetta, but instead serve it like a dip of sorts, you can drizzle the bread with the glaze. Set the drizzled bread in a basket, and the bruschetta in a bowl with a spoon. Then people can serve themselves their own! Enjoyyyyyy!
If you decide to make some for yourself, remember to tag me in your Instagram, or Instagram Stories, @brookecourtney, so I can see it!