Bruschetta

Bruschetta

This is a slightly different take on the traditional bruschetta (the ‘ch’ is pronounced like a ‘k’). If you’ve ever eaten at Pizza Express, you might see the resemblance. This was my favourite starter they made, I’d have it every time I ate there.

Normally a bruschetta would be a simply toasted piece of bread, perhaps ciabatta, rubbed with oil, garlic and beautifully ripe tomatoes. Our tomatoes just don’t have any flavour so adding a bit of onion and some pesto really helps boost the flavour.

Method

To make the pitta bases

1. Make a batch of my basic bread recipe and allow it to prove for about 2 hours until it’s doubled in size.
2. Setup your Egg for an indirect cook with the plate setter feet down and your Egg set yo 220°C. We will use the back of the plate setter to cook on as it will be the cleanest side.
3. When you Egg is to temperature lightly flour your work surface.
4. Take a piece of dough, about the size of 2 golf balls for each pitta.
5. Roll out until they are about 3mm thick, about the thickness of a £1 coin.
6. Place them onto your upturned plate setter for a couple of minutes. They should start to puff up.
7. Turn when they are golden underneath.
8. Cook for a further 2 minutes. Take off and set aside.
9. In your basting pot, melt some butter with the garlic mixed in. Cook for 2-3 minutes gently to allow the garlic to infuse the butter.
10. Now baste each of your pittas with the garlic butter (only do this on one side, the top).

For the tomato topping

1. Dice the tomatoes.
2. Shred some of the basil leaves into the tomatoes.
3. Mix with the onion and pesto in a bowl and season with the salt and pepper.

Put it together

1. For each person, top one of the pittas with the tomato topping.
2. Drizzle with olive oil and garnish with a basil leaf.