Tomato and Avocado Bruschetta

Crunch Into This Easy Bruschetta With Avocado And Tomato

We’re really into this light summertime appetizer! Our bruschetta recipe takes the wonderful base of toasted bread and olive oil, and adds fresh cherry tomatoes at their ripe peak, and a little creamy avocado to tie it all together. We’re picturing this on a table full of delicious appetizers like Creamy Feta with Tinned Fish, a plate of Roasted Red Peppers, and a platter set with a Grand Aioli.

What Is Bruschetta?

Marcella Hazan, in her indispensable book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, explains the etymology of bruschetta— “the verb bruscare, which means to toast (as in a slice of bread) or roast (as with coffee beans); hence bruschetta, whose most important component, aside from the grilled bread itself, is olive oil.” In harvest season, when olive oil is newly pressed, grassy and fresh, making a meal of the simplest bruschetta—toasted bread, dressed generously with that newly pressed olive oil—is a classic and beloved tradition that Hazan calls “as old as Rome itself.” Garlic is often rubbed on the bread, and tomatoes are another favorite topping, but true Italian bruschetta can be as basic as crisp toasted bread and really good olive oil.

Ingredients You’ll Need To Make Fresh Avocado And Cherry Tomato Bruschetta Recipe

• Baguette

• Olive oil

• Garlic powder

• Fresh garlic

• Cherry tomatoes

• White balsamic vinegar (you could use regular balsamic if that’s what you have. It will just darken the tomatoes a bit.)

• Avocados

• Lemon juice

• Basil

How to Make Bruschetta

1. Marinate the tomatoes. Stir the seeded tomatoes with some fresh garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl. Leave it for at least 10-15 minutes to let the flavors meld.

2. Prepare the bread. Brush the bread slices with olive oil using a pastry brush, and sprinkle with a little garlic powder.

3. Toast the bread. Broil for a few minutes on a sheet pan, until the bread is golden brown and toasted.

4. Make the avocado. Mash the avocado with more fresh garlic, lemon juice, some basil, salt and pepper.

5. Assemble the bruschetta! Spread the smashed avocado on the toasted bread, top with tomatoes and garnish with a little more fresh basil. Serve.

How to Store Leftovers + Tips

• We hope that you don’t have leftovers! This is one of those dishes that doesn’t hold up well once it’s assembled. If you have leftover toasted bread, you can keep it in an airtight container for some time. The marinated tomatoes can be stirred into a pasta salad to give them a new life.

• This is a great opportunity to use bread that is slightly past its prime. Once you toast it up a bit, it will be as good as new!

• How Do You Keep Bruschetta From Getting Soggy? Use cherry tomatoes! They’re not quite as juicy as big, ripe, peak-summer tomatoes, so we think they’re better suited for bruschetta. All the best bruschetta recipes will tell you to seed tomatoes, and then salt them and drain them in a colander to really get rid of a lot of their juices. With cherry tomatoes, the salting-and-draining process is overkill—which means using cherry tomatoes saves you some time. A handy paring knife will serve you well for this task.

More Delicious Tomato Recipes From The Modern Proper

• Three Ingredient Tomato Sauce

• Tomato Salad

• Braised Tomatoes with Burrata

• Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

Bruschetta That Bread!

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