Bruschetta the Italian way
Bruschetta the Italian way
Before you put the first real dish of the day on the table, it’s not a bad plan to give your guests a taste of all the goodies you’ll be preparing with the barbecue. After all, the first blow is worth a dime? You may also call it an amuse-bouche (French for “entertainment for the mouth”). Of course, what matters is that the snack impresses. So it must be tasty and unable to fail. Bruschetta meets both conditions.Bruschetta comes from the Latin verb bruscare, which means “to roast on coals,” so I can’t make it much more appropriate. Originally, it is a dish from central Italy, where it was used to still make something edible out of stale bread. Cookbooks that tell you that the Etruscans and ancient Romans were already making bruschetta forget one thing: tomato is an essential ingredient for making this appetizer, and tomatoes were unknown in Europe until the 16th century. Bread, smeared with garlic and olive oil and then toasted, did exist for a long time, but it was called Crostini then (and now). Bruschetta uses (thick) slices of bread, such as ciabatta. Crostinis are sliced thinner and are smaller (because of a baguette). And then there is Fettunta (“oiled slice”). This is almost the same as bruschetta, but made from Tuscan bread, which has no salt in it. At a Fettunta, this is then sprinkled on top of the tomatoes.
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