Tomato and Mozzarella Bruschetta

This past week has been rough on me. I became a victim of the digital age. Well, I should have paid heed to the saying “Don’t store all your eggs in one basket”. Between multiple hard disk formats, three one TB hard disks, half a dozen pen drives and countless CDs, I misplaced a good part of my food pictures :-/ Well… it was tragedy waiting to happen- just like Murphy had warned! I should have been extra cautious. I say misplaced, because I still hope to find them in some dark corner of digital storage (blame me of having grown up on a staple diet of Disney films).
Now that the worst has passed, the moment calls for some relaxation. And my way to do that is to make Bruschetta and just sit back and relax. It’s easy to cook (there’s hardly any cooking!) and easier to gorge.
All it requires is fairly decent chopping skills, tomatoes and lots of olive oil.
And they’re great when you have a lot of people over because the cooking time is really less or even when you are by yourself and too tired to make something more elaborate.

So here’s a recipe for Tomato and Mozzarella Bruschetta with and without Olives.

Divine Bruschetta… simply perfect for every occasion!

Tomato and Mozzarella Bruschetta

Ingredients
1 Baguette (French loaf bread) (I mostly make it with Garlic bread so I can skip adding garlic in the tomato mixture)
2 cups deseeded and finely chopped tomatoes or Roma tomatoes
1 cup Mozzarella cheese
a few Basil leaves finely chopped
2 cloves of Garlic finely chopped
½ cup Olive oil
salt and crushed black pepper
Other optional toppings: Olives, Jalapenos, Onions

Line your baking tray with grease paper and butter the bottom of the slice if you want a nice golden brown bottom for your Bruschetta

Method
Preheat the oven at about 170-180 degree.

Cut the French loaf into about one inch thick slices and set aside. Now assemble the chopped tomatoes on the bread slices. Add a bit of the chopped basil, pinch of salt, pepper, garlic and then drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil. Top this off with the Mozzarella. You can add or skip the Mozzarella, Tomato Bruschetta tastes just as wonderful. Bake in the oven for about 7-8 minutes.

Alternatively, if you want the tomatoes to be a more flavorsome mix the chopped tomatoes, pinch of salt, pepper, basil, garlic, chopped onions, two tablespoons of olive oil, a dash of Balsamic Vinegar and set this mixture aside for about half an hour. Put the mixture over each of the bread slice after draining off the excess liquid and top off with Olive oil and Mozzarella. Bake in the oven for about 7-8 minutes.

I’ve shred the Mozzarella but you slice it up…

You can add chopped olives, jalapenos and onions as toppings on the tomato mixture before baking. And remember to be generous with the Olive oil. The tomatoes and Olive oil work wonderfully well together!