The beginning and Tomato and Basil bruschetta

I have been thinking about starting this blog for a long while now and finally today I strictly told myself that I will not take my bum off my chair till I am done. So here goes...!

Ok to begin with, if you are not my friend already then you need to know this about me... I totally, totally, totally love cooking, eating, shopping (both for food and for my wardrobe,) make up, shoes, hairstyle, travelling and books...! And that is what you will get to read about in this blog - all of my favorite recipes, reviews of new and exciting restaurants and books, my seasonal beauty and clothing haul, look-book, travel-log and more.

I thought and thought about what my first blog should be about and finally decided that it should be this tomato and basil bruschetta because it screams about my love for all things Italian and also shows just how easy cooking and entertaining friends can be.

Tomato and basil bruschetta

This one right here is the first ever Italian dish I ever made. I absolutely love the ruby red of the tomatoes studded with the bright green of the fresh basil sitting on a golden bed of salty sourdough baguette.

I love the way you can even see tiny salt grains on the board

I love sourdough bread and it is definitely the healthier option. I bought all the Ingredients from www.foodesto.com and this is a website I highly recomend to any of you looking for online kitchen and pantry shopping (plus their customer service is excellent) but if you have a French loaf or Daily bread outlet nearby then you are sorted for bread and you should get fresh basil in any good supermarket. If you can't find fresh basil then you can go ahead and use the dried stuff but I can't promise you that it will be quite the same.

Tip - give the warm bread a rub with a piece of garlic to give it a garlic-y hum

Also this is awesome in the sense that you can do it ahead of time and set aside and season with salt and pepper just before serving to your guests. Also considering the fact that this is vegetarian and absolute low calorie food it makes an ideal food to serve to any guests you may have invited or any hunger or snack pangs you might get in between meals.

My favorite thing to eat and serve to friends

   

Well... below is the list of ingredients and procedure. Enjoy...!

What you will need:

1 sourdough baguette

1 clove garlic

4 ripe plum tomatoes (or any tomatoes that are not too sour but have a lot of flesh)

A small handful of fresh basil

100ml extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper for seasoning

How to make it:

1. Cut the baguette diagonally into 1 inch slices and toast till golden on a griddle pan or a toaster.
2. Chop a clove of garlic in half and give each piece of toast with it to impart a warm garlic-y flavor.
3. Drizzle generously the extra-virgin olive oil to douze the bread in peppery flavor and set aside.
4. In the meantime, chop the tomatoes in half and using a spoon, scoop out the seeds within to avoid a soggy mess.
5. Chop the tomatoes roughly tear over some fresh basil. Give it a good toss to mix.
6. Pile the tomato and basil mixture as generously as possible onto the toast. 
7. Finally, season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper to season and serve away.

Serves 4 greedy people

Try this at home and please comment below to tell me how yours turned out.

Also you can see me make this recipe on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WqXhBgJSTg&feature=youtu.be

You can also follow me on twitter at: https://twitter.com/AtRanjus

Also you can follow me on Instagram and Pinterest

P.S. This post could never look as beautiful as it does without Nikita Suresh who clicked all these lovely pictures.