How to Make Easy Tomato Bruschetta Recipe with Basil

How to Make Easy Tomato Bruschetta Recipe with Basil is the perfect summertime appetizer when the tomatoes are in season, and basil is plenty! This easy bruschetta recipe is a classic Italian appetizer that is filled with fresh flavors!

We’ve all seen the scene in Julie and Julia where Julie and her husband are eating that unctuous tomato mixture on crispy, buttery bread and we all want to try it!

While this recipe for Easy Tomato Bruschetta isn’t the exact recipe, it’s my interpretation of it.

Cherry tomatoes are combined with spicy, fresh garlic cloves, shallots, basil, and capers for added brininess. 

It’s all spooned over toasted bread for an easy appetizer perfect for the summer months.

In this recipe for Wedge Salad for a Crowd, this tomato salad recipe is used IN the dressing! Delish!

You will love this recipe if you love fresh tomatoes, bright and simple ingredients, and hearty golden brown French bread!

This classic tomato bruschetta is a great appetizer for using your garden’s fresh tomatoes, that only a certain time of year can produce.

For any party where I’m in charge of the appetizer, I’ll usually bring a grazing board of sorts with several different options on it.

Yes! This grazing board even had a shrimp cocktail included!

How to Make Easy Tomato Bruschetta Recipe with Basil

First, let’s gather the ingredients you’ll need:

Tomatoes – The best tomatoes you can get! I prefer to use little ones but feel free to use plum tomatoes or fresh Roma tomatoes.

Shallots – I use shallots in this recipe. They have a more gentle bite than red onions. If you’re a fan of red onion you can definitely substitute it!

Fresh Garlic – Oh how I love the fresh garlic in this recipe! Not from a jar, fresh for the peeling, y’all!

Capers – this is a non-traditional addition to fresh tomato bruschetta. But, the acidic brine that capers have gives an amazing flavor to the vine-ripened tomatoes!

Fresh Basil – right off the vine! I keep a little pot of basil on my window sill and pluck some off when I need it. So yum!

For the tomato salad, you’ll also need red wine vinegar, olive oil, kosher salt, and black pepper.

Crusty Bread – You can pick up baguette slices, or you can make Garlic Herb Bruschetta. Either way, you’ll need some extra-virgin olive oil, kosher salt, and a little black pepper to make your crunchy bread perfect for the best bruschetta recipe! (I know I keep saying it, but it really is good!)

Extra Items you could add are balsamic vinegar or balsamic reduction.  

What is Bruschetta?

Bruschetta actually refers to bread.

I didn’t grill my bread — but, the word bruschetta in Italian is the equivalent of “roast over coals” — the usual grill marks create a “grate” for you to rub fresh garlic on each of the slices, leaving a deliciously spicy garlicky taste to pair up!

The topping is essentially a tomato salad. But, here in the Good US of A, bruschetta is exactly the recipe I’m giving you today.

Tomato salad is what bruschetta is all about in the summertime — the tomatoes are ripe and hearty, and the fresh basil leaves come in overwhelmingly!

This is the perfect way to use up lots of tomatoes.

Need ideas for a Bruschetta Bar Grazing Board?! 

Here are the recipes you can add to your own Bruschetta Board

1. Garlic Herb Bruschetta
2. Feta & Boursin Cheese Spread – it’s really not a recipe. Just combine a half cup of feta with a round of Boursin herb cheese! Yum!
3. Sun-Dried Tomato Goat Cheese Spread or I like to call it Italian Pimento Cheese
4. Italian Cheese Spread
5. This Baked Tomato and Goat Cheese recipe is phenomenal!

All these go great with toasted slices of a baguette!

How do you make Simple Bruschetta with Tomatoes and Basil?

First, I toasted slices of a French baguette with just butter, then rubbed a fresh garlic clove over each one after it finished toasting under the broiler.

Second, in the next round of toast, I did a little extra… Italian Herbs, White Wine, and Fresh Garlic.

Garlic Herb Bruschetta can hold up to any spread you imagine.

And they make a killer topping for soup!

What is the best bread for Bruschetta?

I prefer using a French baguette.
It’s a long and skinny one.

If you wanted to create a full meal, pair this appetizer recipe with this Cold Watermelon Gazpacho recipe! 

What a perfect, refreshing summertime pairing! You could even serve out of a mason jar or shot glasses for a great porch party!

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Tools You’ll Need for Tomato Bruschetta Recipe:
Cutting Board
Sharp Knife
Microplane
Mixing Bowl

Next, slice small (or large!) tomatoes into bite-size pieces. 

How do you cut tomatoes for bruschetta?

Using a serrated knife, cut in half lengthwise. If they’re the long Marzano tomatoes, I’ll cut them in half lengthwise and across. 

Then, grate some fresh cloves of garlic over the top of the tomatoes with a Microplane.

Dice up your shallot and add it to the bowl, too.

Now, gently stir in red wine vinegar, capers + a plop of the caper brine, fresh torn basil, salt & pepper.

Gently toss all of this together, and let it sit for an hour in the fridge. 

A friendly word on the fresh garlic: the longer garlic sits the spicier it gets. So, if you’re making this at the beginning of the week, choose one less clove than you think. You can always perk the salad up with a fresh clove when you go to spoon it over the warm bread!

Hopefully, in the summer, you can find fresh basil.

If you’re making this and you don’t have any fresh basil on hand, try using any fresh herbs. Thyme and oregano would be lovely!

Dried works in a pinch, as well.

You can find all the instructions in the recipe card below!

Missed the other recipes on this Grazing Board?? 

• Italian Pimento Cheese
• Italian Cheese Spread
• Garlic Herb Bruschetta
• Tomato Bruschetta 
• Roasted Shrimp Cocktail

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