L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 32 L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2019 LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES Bruschetta con pomodoro is typical, but the original bruschetta only has olive oil, a pinch of salt and garlic Continua da pagina 30 fewminutes. Take a half garlic clove, which you have cut crosswise into two without peeling: rub each slice of bread with the exposed side of the clove while it is still hot, squeezing the garlicbetween your fingers to release its juices into it. Drizzle your bread liberally with fruity olive oil. The slices should be nicely soaked. Add salt to taste. Now you have authentic br- uschetta at its basic best. You can eat it just like this and, if your bread and oil are good enough, it will be perfectly delicious. If you want, however, you can top each slice with a tomato mix- ture, which you can make by mix- ing together all of the ingredients mentioned above in a bowl right before serving. Notes If you don't have time to make your own bread at home, then get the best quality bread you can find, with a good crust and a firm but open crumb. Usually, breads sold as "rustic" or "peasant" style will work best. A few days old bread is preferable. In fact, this recipe may well have started as a way of using bread that had gone slightly stale, and you can use it that way, too. Just beware: older bread is drier, so it will grill very quickly. Make sure it doesn't burn! One good tip is to slice your bread thickly, as thicker slices are less apt to burn. Older or not, thick or thin, you should never leave the grill unattended even for a moment when you are making bruschetta. Trust me, I know from experience. The olive oil should be the best you can afford, with a rich, full, fruity flavor. I personally like the deep green olive oils of southern Italy with their assertive flavor and pleasant "bite." But Tuscan oil is wonderful, too. Indeed, the Tus- cans make bruschetta and call it, quite appropriately, fettunta, which means "greased slice" or, more poetically, "anointed slice." The tomatoes, too, should be full of flavor. Bruschetta is a won- derful way to show off the full fla- vor of tomatoes from your garden or the local farmer's market. If you don't have either, then an acceptable substitute are grape tomatoes or hydroponic tomatoes (I like "Campari" tomatoes, for example); these tend to have more flavor than your average super- market variety. There are, of course, other top- pings you can try. In Campania they are fond of making a caprese- like topping with chopped up mozzarella (or those little moz- zarella balls called ciliegine) and olives added to the ingredients listed above. Olive or artichoke paste makes a nice topping as well. One thing that you shouldn't add is too much garlic. As you saw, the garlic is simply rubbed gently over the bread slices while they are still hot. Garlic juices in- fuse the bread with a subtle flavor, so there is no need to add garlic to the topping mixture or, God for- bid, garlic purée on top of the bread à la American-style "garlic bread," one of the very worst faux Italian abominations. If you don't have a grill, by the way, you can make bruschetta on top of the stove with a small hand- held grill that fits over your burner called a brustolina. Otherwise, a regular toaster will do the trick, even if you will lose some of the rustic charm that a live flame lends to the dish. Finally, a linguistic note: the word "bruschetta" is Italian, not German, so it is pronounced broo- SKEH-ta. It is NOT pronounced broo-SHEH-ta. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, and I alwayscringe when I hear wait staff in restau- rants (or 'chefs' on TV!) mispro- nounce the word. And since you're making authentic br- uschetta, why not pronounce it correctly, too? Frank inherited his love for Italian cuisine and culinary tra- dition from his grandmother, nonna Angelina, to whom he ded- icated his culinary blog, Memorie di Angelina: www.memoriedian- gelina.com If you want to use tomatoes, make sure they are chopped small and dressed in the best olive oil you can find

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