Bruschetta with Tomatoes & Basil

Christmas is over and now we are all gearing up for the new year. I love Christmas. I can't quite say the same about new year.   New year always makes me wonder where the year went to.  It makes me wonder if I spent the time well and whether the coming year will be a better one.  (Pray for me that it will be!)

We had a wonderful Christmas.  A rather tiring one though, as we are in the midst of doing up our apartment.  So the long weekend was spent cleaning, fixing up shelves, tables and moving all our stuff from one room to another, which explains why I didn't have much time to post during the Christmas holidays.  Hopefully we can get our apartment fully furnished by the Lunar New Year. 

We had quite a bit of baguette leftover from our Christmas dinner and I decided to make a simple and healthy (I think!) lunch for myself yesterday.  This makes a wonderful appetiser for dinner parties. 

Brushchetta with Tomatoes & Basil

makes 12 appetiser servings

6 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced

3 cloves garlic, mince 2 cloves, leave 1 whole

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup fresh basil, stems removed, julienned

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 French baguette

olive oil for grilling baguette

Directions

- In a large bowl, combine the roma tomatoes, minced garlic, extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper. Allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes.               
- Cut the baguette into 3/4-inch slices. Drizzle the baguette slices (both sides) with olive oil and place them on a heated frying pan and grill them till the underside turn golden brown on one side.  Flip them over and grill them on the other side. Rub the clove of garlic on one side of each baguette slice.
- Divide the tomato mixture evenly over the baguette slices.