Bruschetta

On a recent weekend afternoon we had some friends over for a blind wine tasting. I made some bruschetta for us to snack on while we sipped. The weather was rainy so I didn't put the bread slices on the grill. Instead, I heated my grill pan, put the slices in the pan, and weighted the slices down with an iron skillet. I turned the slices to create cross hatching, then flipped them over to crisp the other side a bit. In addition to prosciutto, we had "Italian" baba ghanouj (not pictured), margherita, and roasted pepper.

For the baba ghanouj, I pricked an eggplant in several places, placed it in a foil lined pan, and then roasted it at 400 degrees until it started collapsing in on itself. After it cooled enough to handle, I scooped out the insides and chopped them a bit, added olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and chopped capers, and mixed it up. I served it with the grilled bread on the side. Note: I like the capers that are packed dry in salt. I rinse them off good before I use them though.

For the margherita, I sliced fresh mozzarella as thinly as I could and placed it on the bread. Then I put cherry tomato slices on the cheese, sprinkled it with chopped fresh basil, and the drizzled a balsamic vinegar reduction over.

For the roasted peppers, I roasted red, orange and yellow bell peppers at 400 degrees until the skins were a bit charred. When I took the pan out of the oven, I covered it with foil for five to ten minutes to let the peppers steam a bit. Once the peppers were cool enough to handle, I pulled off the skin, removed the seeds, and trimmed away the white part. I sliced them up and mixed them with some salt, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The wines? We tasted nine white wines, chardonnays, pinot grigio, a torrontes and a viognier. The wines were in bags so we didn't know what we were tasting. All wines were under $12 per bottle except for one ringer that was an expensive bottle of chardonnay. The only question asked was "Do you like the wine?" We pretty much liked all of the wines, but the viognier was the overall favorite. I was not a bit surprised, I love viognier.

Note: it seems that everyone in the U.S. pronounces it brew-shet- tah. In Italian, "ch" is pronounced like a "k," and it should be pronounced more like brew-skate-tah. Think of the English words: chasm, schedule, and school.