Week 6 – Bruschetta al Pomodoro & Asparagi alla Parmigiana

Hi everyone,

I’m a little late in posting this update, but better late than never! For week 6 I was put in charge of making an entrée as we had a guest coming over for dinner, and J was cooking mains. I chose to make Bruschetta al Pomodoro, or Tomato Bruschetta. I have made Bruschetta many times, which is why I was keen to use the recipe from The Silver Spoon, to see how our modern interpretation of Bruschetta holds up against a classic Italian recipe. I was very surprised to learn that the ingredients did not call for basil, onion or balsamic vinegar, all of which are in a typical recipe for this dish. So, as I am following the exact recipe as outlined in The Silver Spoon, I went ahead with just some bread, garlic and tomatoes!

I cut some think slices off a big loaf of bread, and toasted these on a grill pan. Once the bread was toasted, I rubbed some garlic over it, which almost melted and spread like butter. I put the bread back on the grill for just a minute more, and then put it aside. Once all the bread had been toasted, it was time to load up the diced tomatoes. After each serve had been plated up, I then added plenty of S&P, and drizzled over some olive oil.

As you would expect, the Bruschettta tasted pretty good, as it was almost impossible to stuff it up! However, I really think it was missing the extra flavor of the basil in particular, so I’m not likely to use this recipe again in a hurry! Sorry to the editors of The Silver Spoon, this one is not a winner!

As making a Bruschetta dish was not an overly taxing task, I also made a side dish to go with J’s main course. I made Asparagi alla Parmigiana, or Parmesan Asparagus. This is simply an asparagus side dish, whereby the asparagus is boiled for 15 minutes, and then sprinkled with some parmesan and melted butter. As I expected, the asparagus was way too soggy after cooking for 15 minutes, even though it still tasted okay. I will certainly make this side dish again, although will only cook the asparagus for a couple of minutes. I’m sure that will make a much nicer dish next time.

Until next time…

S