Grilled Bruschetta

We decided this week that we are not going back to any school in person in the fall. The district announced a full remote start, which means I will be doing Zoom teaching again and my students who need in-person support will not be getting it and I have the same complicated feelings I had in March, except now I have had four months to develop more sophisticated versions of those feelings.

I called my co-teacher on the phone and we talked for two hours about what we can do better this fall than we did in the spring. We have been doing research. There are some genuinely useful approaches for remote special ed — visual schedules delivered via video, clear and consistent structure for calls, caregiver support materials that help parents understand the goals. We built a preliminary plan. I feel better with a plan. I always feel better with a plan.

I made gazpacho this week, from scratch, with the tomatoes from my balcony plant that finally started producing — four small red tomatoes and about twelve cherry tomatoes, supplemented by a pound from Aldi. Blended with cucumber, red pepper, garlic, sherry vinegar, olive oil. Cold, smooth, a little spicy from a jalapeño I added. Ryan looked at it skeptically and said it was cold soup. I said yes. He said he was trying to understand cold soup. I said just try it. He tried it. He had two bowls. Cold soup has been vindicated.

The balcony is peak summer now: cherry tomatoes coming in waves, parsley going to seed, basil enormous and fragrant, and the pepper plant — Ryan pepper plant, as I now call it — has produced two small pale green peppers. He checked on them every morning this week. The pride in his face when they appeared was worth every encouraging word I said to that plant in June.

That same week of gazpacho and balcony tomatoes, I kept finding myself back at the kitchen counter, slicing into whatever the plant had given me that day and looking for another way to just—let them be tomatoes. Bruschetta felt exactly right: grilled bread, good olive oil, and the tomatoes doing all the talking. After a week of complicated feelings and long planning calls and trying to figure out how to do something hard a little better, there was something deeply satisfying about a recipe that asks almost nothing of you and gives a lot back.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 6 min | Total Time: 16 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 French baguette, cut into 1/2-inch slices on the diagonal
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, 1 halved for rubbing, 1 minced
1 1/2 cups fresh tomatoes, diced (about 3 medium, or a mix of regular and cherry tomatoes)
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Optional: flaky sea salt for finishing

Instructions

Make the tomato topping. In a medium bowl, combine the diced tomatoes, sliced basil, minced garlic, red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Stir gently and let sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes so the flavors can come together.
Heat the grill. Preheat an outdoor grill or grill pan to medium-high heat. Brush both sides of each baguette slice with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Grill the bread. Place the oiled baguette slices on the grill. Cook for 2—3 minutes per side, until golden and grill marks appear. Watch carefully — they go from toasted to charred quickly.
Rub with garlic. While the bread is still warm, rub each slice with the cut side of the halved garlic clove. The warmth of the bread will draw out the garlic’s flavor into the surface.
Top and serve. Spoon the tomato mixture generously onto each slice. Finish with a pinch of flaky sea salt if desired. Serve immediately while the bread is still warm and crisp.

Nutrition (per serving)

Grilled Bruschetta — When the Balcony Tomatoes Finally Show Up