Yes, I do know that it is called bruschetta, not bruschetti. But that doesn’t rhyme with confetti. Sometimes rhyming is more important than being grammatically correct in a foreign language – its not as though I’m about to move to Italy or anything anyways.

These were our Father’s Day appetizers. The main course and dessert will be posted soon, but for now its all about these tasty little bruschette. We wanted something light and tasty, nothing that would fill up our stomachs or help us fill out our jeans.

Technically, bruschetta is made with bread that is rubbed with garlic, topped with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, then roasted. From that point on, its your blank canvas. Common toppings include chopped tomatoes or olives, or sometimes a little basil or mozzarella. But I opened this post with a bastardization of this Italian dish anyways, so in for a penny, in for a pound. We skipped the mozzarella and basil and olives, but we invited the tomatoes. Green peppers and red onions too. Capers and dried jalapeño peppers rounded out the set. But there were two things that really made these little bruschette amazing. First, we spread a thin layer of goat cheese on the bread. I like it better than mozzarella anyways (they are really going to hate me over there). Second, we mixed the chopped vegetables with a little bit of fresh pesto made with garlic scapes. This gave the dish a really sharp, summery flavor.

Pretty much any kind of baguette or toasts can be used as the base for this dish. We actually used sourdough sandwich bread, cut up into quarters. Make it even healthier and use multigrain or whole wheat bread!

For the base, use whatever kind of bread you like. Drizzle lightly with olive oil, sprinkle with salt + pepper, and bake in oven until crisp.

Topping recipe:

1/4 cup red onion, chopped

1/4 cup tomato, chopped

1/4 green pepper, chopped

2 Tbsp. capers

1 tsp. dried jalapeño flakes

1 Tbsp. pesto

Approximately 3 Tbsp. goat cheese

Combine ingredients in a bowl. Spread thin layer of goat cheese on each piece of toast. Heap a small spoonful of topping onto each toast. Bake at 250° for 2-3 minutes, then broil for 45-60 seconds. Remove from oven and serve warm!