
Up your summer Bruschetta game!
Grilling your bread instead of toasting in an oven adds a smoky element. And wiping the hot toasts with sliced garlic both cooks and softens its harsher flavors.
Prep/Cooking Time: About 20 minutes, start to finish! Serves 4-6 (or a main course for one!)
Ingredients

- Sweet Baguette
- 2 pints cherry tomatoes (mixed colors), roughly chopped
- Big fistful of Basil leaves, rolled into a cigar shape and sliced into thin strips
- Really good olive oil
- 2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
- 1 large clove unpeeled garlic, sliced lengthwise
- One med-hot grill
Procedure

Once ingredients are assembled, light your grill.
While waiting for your grill to hot up, slice the baguette on the bias (Right), then prepare the tomatoes, basil and garlic (below).

In a bowl, combine and lighlty toss:
- The chopped tomatoes
- 3/4 of the basil
- A very generous splash of olive oil
- The Balsamic
- Salt & pepper to taste.

Brush or spray each slice of baguette with a thin layer of olive oil and place on the hot grill. Monitor closely - those shown here are too crisp/overdone. The goal is to get a bit of flavor and an outer crispness with a chewy center. After flipping, immediately swipe the hot toast once or twice with the raw garlic. Each garlic slice will last for half a baguette, depending on how much garlic you like.

Once toasted and rubbed with garlic, place them on a serving plate and spoon the bowl contents onto the toasts. Top with remaining sliced Basil. Test one or two and adjust seasoning, make sure the wine works, open one or two more bottles and keep testing until the perfect pairing is found. Once all your testing is complete, serve both remaining bruschetta immediately. (kidding)
Wine Pairings
The acid in this dish (tomatoes, vinegar) will defeat most red wines, so I recommend sticking with crisp summer wines - light reds slightly chilled, dry Rosés and crisp whites - exactly like those you'll find here.

Cheers!