On of my favorite things to do in an expensive restaurant, is to order a selection of appetizers. It dramatically reduces the cost of the meal, but you get a good feel for what the chef is capable of. The Italians, who have as many as eight courses, call the first one antipasto, or “before the meal,” and the Spanish call it tapas. Kitchen slang for us is a simple abbreviation, “app.” No matter what you call it, it makes for a great meal. My favorite application is the Italian antipasto, which often takes the form of bruschetta. I have seen a lot of dishes in restaurants claiming to be bruschetta, but if it isn’t served on fire roasted bread, it’s just toast.
The classic way to make bruschetta is to take day old bread, rub it with a garlic clove, roast it on the red-hot coals of a wood fire and drizzle it with very good olive oil. The Italians say, “day old bread, month old oil and year-old wine.” If you want to jazz it up a little, add sliced ripe tomatoes, salt, oregano, basil and your best olive oil.
Other than the fire roasted bread, there really aren’t any rules. The Italians use prosciutto, chicken livers, sausage, zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms and bell peppers, are a few examples. But we can put a Coastal twist on bruschetta to make it our own too.
One of the first things that comes to mind is to use mortadella, the forerunner of the South’s beloved bologna the Italian sausage made in the city of Bologna. Simply grill the bread, then grill the mortadella, add good olive oil to the bread, then the mortadella, along with sliced tomatoes, fresh julienned basil and salt and pepper. The same recipe is just as good with prosciutto de Parma.
If I were to suggest pimento and cheese bruschetta, would you think me nuts? The trick is to make pimento and cheese with high quality ingredients. Instead of American processed cheese, use Gruyere, the best cherry peppers you can find (or grill your own red peppers), homemade aioli (simple with an immersion blended, a cup of olive oil,1 egg, crushed garlic). Simply grill the bread, add the P&C and grill again to melt the cheese.
Almost any grilled vegetable would work well. Maybe zucchini in garlic butter, with a sprinkle of parm would be my favorite, but roasted mushrooms are also very good. White asparagus with hollandaise sauce is also near the top of my list. Another top choice is avocado bruschetta toast, cherry tomatoes and thin slices of radish and beets. And I could go on and on.
Just make sure the fire you roast over is a wood burning fire, no regular charcoal. Hardwood charcoal is a second choice, but really doesn’t come close to wood.
