Here is my recipe for bruschetta that was featured in last week’s Daily Campus in my Hungry Husky column…

One of my favorite appetizers has always been bruschetta. There’s just something so good about taking a warm bite of delicious toasted bread topped with olive oil, garlic, basil, tomatoes and onions.

This classic Italian dish can be prepared within a couple minutes and can be a great appetizer before many main courses, especially any pasta or pizza dish.

Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 6

Here’s what you’ll need:

One whole Italian loaf (cut into 12 slices)

6 medium tomatoes

1/2 medium yellow onion

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

Fresh basil

Olive oil

Sea salt or regular salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Start by slicing your Italian loaf, or if you prefer, you can use a French baguette. I usually use an Italian loaf though because the loaf itself is wider, therefore, you only need to cut a couple pieces as opposed to using the thinner French baguette.

For the Italian loaf, I recommend two slices of bread as one serving. If you use this, then it makes it easier to figure out how much you need to slice by simply cutting two slices of bread about a half inch thick per person. Once your bread is cut, place it on a cookie sheet.

Now take out a medium sized mixing bowl so you can get your toppings ready. Cut your tomatoes and yellow onion into small bite-size pieces. Once you have added the tomatoes and onions to your bowl, you can then add in your minced garlic. Next take a couple leaves of fresh basil, wash well and then chop into bite-size pieces and add to the bowl as well. Add in one tablespoon of olive oil. You can add more if you don’t think that you have enough. Mix well.

Now go back to your bread you placed on your cookie sheet. Add your mixture from the bowl with the tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil and olive oil onto the slices of bread. Then bake for about eight to ten minutes or until the bread is browned and toasted. Let cool for a couple minutes and then serve warm.

I make bruschetta in the oven like this so that the entire bread and toppings are warm. If you prefer the toppings to be cool but placed upon a warm piece of toasted bread, there are two other alternatives you can do. You can brush the bread with olive oil on both sides and then either broil or grill until both sides of the bread are browned and toasted. Then you simply add on your mixture of tomatoes and onions onto the bread and serve. In the summer, which is quickly catching up to us, I especially prefer this method because it is usually hotter and nice to have the cool toppings with the warm bread as opposed to having the entire bruschetta warmed.

Here are the nutrition facts for this appetizer. Assuming you have one serving, meaning two slices of bruschetta, you are consuming 160 calories and four grams of fat.

There is over 340 milligrams of potassium in this little appetizer. You are also getting 27 grams of your total carbohydrates for the day, 2.7 of those grams consist of dietary fiber. Additionally, one serving gives you almost five grams of protein.

In terms of vitamins and minerals, one serving of bruschetta gives you over 15% of your daily vitamin A, over 20% of your daily vitamin C. You are also getting 10% of your daily iron, almost 15% of your daily folate, and almost 20% of your daily manganese.

The complete nutrition facts can be seen in the images above and were calculated using Sparks Recipe Calculator.