Week 11 - Tomatoes

One of the easiest things you can do with tomatoes (besides just slicing them on to sandwiches!) is to make bruschetta.  Bruschetta (pronounced bru-sket'-a) is an Italian appetizer where the main ingredient is thick Italian bread that has been brushed with olive oil, grilled or toasted and then rubbed with garlic and salt.  You can then top it with whatever you like, but tomatoes are nearly always part of the mix.

I am not a fan of 100% white bread.  In fact, I almost never eat it simply because all the goodness has been stripped from the wheat and it really is empty calories.  Unfortunately, store bought Italian bread will most likely be of this variety.   For my bruschetta, I made a spelt flat bread dough in my bread machine (recipe given below), but you could use whatever you like - even crackers if you don't want to go to the trouble of grilling/toasting bread or making the flat bread.  However, I do think the olive oil, garlic and salt adds quite a bit of taste to the finished product.

Tomato-Lentil Bruschetta Appetizers

2 Clarion River Organics Tomatoes, diced
1 can lentils, drained and rinsed (or 1 1/2 cup cooked lentils)
1/2 cup kalamata olives, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, snipped or chopped
2 cloves garlic, 1 sliced in half, 1 chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
10 slices thick italian bread (or see Spelt Flat Bread recipe below or just use crackers)

Combine the tomatoes, lentils, olives, basil, and the chopped garlic clove in a large bowl.  Brush the olive oil on the slices of bread and toast bread in oven at 400 for 6 to 8 minutes, turning once,  or until lightly browned (or broil for 2 to 4 minutes turning once).  Rub the garlic halves, cut side down, on the bread slices (or on the spelt flat bread squares) and sprinkle with salt to taste.  Cut each bread slice in half.  Chop the garlic clove that you used to rub the bread and add it to the tomato mixture in the bowl.  Top each bread slice (or spelt square) with a generous amount of the bruschetta.  Makes 30 spelt square appetizers or 20 bread appetizers.

Spelt Flat Bread

Add the following to your bread machine in the order listed:

1 cup water
2 Tbsp. olive oil 
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups Spelt flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tsp yeast (or one packet)
extra olive oil for brushing top

Set bread machine to dough setting.  When dough is ready, roll out on a cookie sheet or pizza stone into a 10 x 12 inch rectangle.  Brush top with 1 Tbsp olive oil.  Bake 10 minutes at 450.  Cool slightly and cut into two inch squares.