Comfort Food: Bruschetta al Pomodoro

The authentic Bruschetta al Pomodoro is made with ripe, juicy Italian tomatoes, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil, served on crunchy garlic toast. Since I don’t eat raw tomato and have no idea where my tomatoes come from, my take on it is slightly different, but uses all of the key ingredients and a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

DIFFICULTY: Easy AF

SERVES: 4 (or just you)

PREP TIME: 10 minutes

COOK TIME: 20 minutes

¼ cup of excellent olive oil (quality is key here. Keep the bottle on standby... if you’re anything like me, you’ll need more.)

3 tablespoons garlic, crushed

½ a lemon

1 teaspoon salt, roughly ground

1 teaspoon black pepper, roughly ground

1 teaspoon garlic and herb spice

3 basil leaves, fresh (preferably, but dried is fine)

1 tub exotic tomatoes (that one from Woolies with the different coloured tomatoes goes hard)

Ciabatta

1. Set your oven to grill.
2. Drizzle a baking tray with olive oil, place your slices of ciabatta on it and drizzle even more olive oil so the bread is evenly coated with the good stuff. Put the tray on the bottom shelf of the oven and grill on one side until crispy (not too crispy). The other side should be soft, spongy and oily. Stunning. Leave your bread in the now turned-off oven.
3. Mix spices (salt, pepper, garlic and herb spice) together in a small bowl.
4. Cut up tomatoes into smaller pieces and set aside.
5. Using a frying pan on medium heat, heat up about three tablespoons of olive oil. Add tomatoes, spices and crushed garlic. Cook for three minutes and then add a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Cook further until the oil, tomato and lemon juice form a delicious gravy.
6. Take the tray of bread out of the oven, flip the bread over to the soft side and spoon lemony, garlicky, olive oily, tomato goodness onto each slice.
7. Tear your basil leaves and sprinkle. (At this point, I like to pretend I’m a passionate Italian while I generously drizzle even more olive oil over the bruschetta, bringing my fingers to my lips, making a kissing sound.)