Summer Bruschetta

Last year, I took a class at school called Advanced Foods and Restaurant Management. While the title of the class sounds daunting, it was a very chill class and had absolutely nothing to do with management (or advanced for that matter). Basically we just cooked and ate and ate and cooked. It was a very enjoyable class. While we were studying Italian food, we made some bruschetta. It was the first time I had had bruschetta and I was absolutely delighted by the taste and texture I experienced when I bit into the bread.

While most bruschetta recipes prompt you to use a lot of oil, my healthified recipe does not feature oil as an ingredient. It is completely unnecessary to use oil in bruschetta. However, if you feel the need for some fat, just add a teaspoon or two of olive oil in with the tomato mixture. Bruschetta is great served for Sunday brunch or as an appetizer.

Ingredients

6 ripe tomatoes, chopped into cubes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp vinegar (balsamic is best)
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped (2 tsp dried basil can be opted, but the intensity of the flavor is sacrificed dramatically)
Salt
Pepper
1 baguette
1 cup shredded low fat mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F.
2. In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, garlic, vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
3. Cut the baguette diagonally into ½ inches slices. Put the baguette slices onto an oven tray and toast in the oven for about 5 minutes.
4. Take the tray out of the oven and spoon the tomato mixture on top of the baguette slices. Sprinkle cheese on top of the tomatoes. Put the tray back into the oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.