BRUSCHETTA

Summer creates tomatoes and tomatoes demand to be combined with basil and eaten on bread. I have eaten and made bruschetta a few times. The innovation in this version was entirely in the bread. Slicing the bread into small rounds with only a little crust makes it possible to literally pop an entire bruschetta into one's mouth and savor everything wonderful about sweet heirlooms, spicy raw garlic, fresh basil, olive oil and a hint of butter all in one bite. Genius. Dexter gets credit for this brilliant bread idea. I usually slice the bread lengthwise leaving a lot of hard crust to maneuver with each bite.

My current favorite version of bruschetta:

Vanessa fed me my first really good bruschetta. She's Swiss Italian and knows the secret of toasting the bread and then rubbing raw garlic cloves on it. I also try to imagine what the versions at Frank and Zampa taste like when I am adjusting the amounts of each ingredient.

Chop tomatoes that smell like tomatoes and have real tomato flavor. This may mean waiting until the summer. I used a mixture of heirlooms in dark purples, oranges, golden yellows, and paler reds plus regular bright red tomatoes on the vine. Mix well with a good olive oil, fresh ground salt, fresh ground pepper, and a good amount of chopped fresh basil leaves. A bunch of fresh basil will be quite happy stored like flowers in a glass of water. Let this bowl of goodness sit for at least 20 minutes. In the meantime, slice a good baguette that has tender innards, not mealy or starchy or crumbly white but pliable with plenty of air holes, into small rounds. I prefer firehook and breadline to le pain quoditien and whole foods. Toast the rounds in a pan coated in a butter and olive oil mixture until one side is a saturated, crispy golden brown. Let the other side cook just long enough to be warm. While still hot, rub raw garlic cloves all over the brown sides of the bread like grating cheese. Rub, rub, rub. Heap tomatoes onto the bread. Fit as many bruschetta as you can onto a plate. Start eating. Incredible.

Best eaten with fingers. Savor the garlicy, salty, buttery taste.