A Step By Step Guide for the Best Bruschetta

Being Italian and growing up with the culture, you learn about what are the favorite dishes to be displayed at a party. What was a favorite? Bruschetta.

I have made bruschetta before, but I have to say I never thought bruschetta would have different tastes. You think you've had one bruschetta dish, you had them all. However, I have never had bruschetta where you have lemon juice and zest added to the dish.

Here are ingredients that I used for some classic bruschetta:

Ingredients:

• 1 baguette

• 4 Roma large tomatoes and diced

• 1/4 cup chopped basil

• 5-6 garlic cloves minced

• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon oregano

• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

• 1 teaspoon of lemon zest

Here is the cost of making this dish as an appetizer or side:

The Financials

• 1 baguette- $1.00

• 4 Roma large tomatoes and diced-$3.57

• 1/4 cup chopped basil- already had the basil

• 5-6 garlic cloves minced- already had garlic

• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar- already had balsamic • 2 tablespoons of olive oil- already had olive oil

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper- already had black pepper • 1/2 teaspoon salt- already had the salt

• 1 teaspoon oregano- already had the oregano

• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice- $2.24

• 1 teaspoon of lemon zest- same price has lemons.

The recipe cost for the bruschetta was only $6.81. I had a majority of the ingredients already so it saved me a bunch of money.

For the savings, I used Fetch Rewards, ShopKick and Coinout. Ibotta did not offer me any cash back or points for the items used to make the bruschetta. That is a reminder about cash back applications, they are a fickle type of technology on the phone. Sometimes you strike the pot and sometimes you do not.

Fetch Rewards gave me the automatic 25 points for scanning a receipt. I did not receive any extra bonus points for the ingredients that I purchased for the bruschetta.

Shopkick gave me 10 kicks for walking into the store. I don’t purchase items they have for extra kicks. It is not typically fresh, pastry, or shelf items that Shayne and I eat.

From Coinout, I got a penny for scanning my receipt.

However, the fact it only cost me $6.81 is a savings goal in itself. I got something out of the small receipt I had and I got to save money on the ingredients cost as well. Plus for an appetizer, can you really find cheaper at a restaurant? Okay, it some places you can but you definitely can’t get 12 pieces of an appetizer for that price.

The Outcomes and Recommendations

For future reference, you can also use this as an appetizer or pair it with soup and/or salad. This is not like Buca Di Beppo bruschetta where it over powers your palate with the basil or balsamic vinegar. The recipe makes enough where you could have it as a counterpart to the salad or soup. When using a French baguette and an adequate amount of tomatoes, you are able to indulge with more pieces of bruschetta and balance the appetizer with soup or salad.

I used the bruschetta as an appetizer and pairing for the chicken piccata, appetizer for housewarming, and as a pairing for Spinach Fettuccine.

I was able to make 12-15 pieces of bruschetta with the ingredients mentioned. For making the bread to be crisp, you can either place in the oven for 350 at 15 minutes, or air fry on bake setting for 5 minutes at 390.

The recipe is perfect because prep work is not too arduous, you can have many pairings with other dishes. The pairings could be for soup, salad, pasta, or even as a separate dish for a party.