Ingredients for 4 people
2 spoonfuls of cannellini beans
2 red tomatoes ripened in the sun
4 leaves of fresh basil
1 clove of fresh garlic
2 three-fingered pinches of salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 spoonfuls of extravirgin olive oil
4 slices of Tuscan bread each
1 finger thick
WHAT YOU NEED
A wooden chopping board, one smooth-bladed and one saw-bladed knife, a bowl to mix the ingredients in and an oven to toast the bread.
PREPARATION
Isn’t it wonderful to have all those lovely colors on the table. Can’t you smell the perfume of the basil? In Tuscany bruschettare means to toast, especially bread. The best known bruschetta in our area is made with oil, and it is also used to taste new oil just come out of the olive press. You make it by rubbing some garlic on a lightly toasted piece of bread and then generously pouring out the best extravirgin olive oil, and finally adding a pinch of salt. But let us go back to our tomato bruschetta.
First heat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Chop the garlic into very small pieces and put them in the bowl, break up the basil leaves with your fingers so they don’t get dark. Use the saw-bladed knife to cut the tomato into cubes the size of the nail of your little finger, and put all the ingredients into the bowl, then add salt, pepper and oil. Take a spoon to mix from the inside of the rim of the bowl moving towards the center, going all around the rim. This will give you a soft and complete mix.
Let the mix rest to get flavor and toast the bread for 10 minutes. The way you toast the bread is important: it must be crisp outside, but soft inside. This way, when you bite into the bruschetta, the bread will stick onto your palate, and give you its full taste. Now mix the seasoning again, and use a spoon to pick up both the pieces and the seasoning, then spread them generously over the slice of bread. Serve immediately so the bread has the right texture!!!