Appetizer Saturday: Bruschetta

So...it's now a couple of Saturdays ago that I made this, but J and I have been eating tapas dinners on Saturday nights.  In theory, it's so that we have a good repertoire of things for football season.  You know, those days you sit on the couch in your team's colours because it's an away game and you're not tailgating?  Okay, well, perhaps that's our house.
We have decided, however, that we cannot live on baked cheese dip alone.  So, we're trying some other small plate things (Buffalo Wontons, anyone?) that we can eat Saturdays as we watch at least 3 games.
Hopefully in fall, the tomatoes will be better than what I could get in February.  I even bought hothouse vine ripened, and they were a little mealy.  But with what I added, it was still all good.
I present to you now how we make Bruschetta around here:

I seeded 4 medium tomatoes, and chopped them coarsely.  I added Epicure's Pesto seasoning (I sprinkle it over until it looks good), a glug of good olive oil, a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar (I'm using Zingerman's 10 year old balsamic right now...it doesn't take much), and some crumbled feta.  I've added chopped black olives, but I find them overpowering.  I then cover and put in the fridge so the flavours can meld.

I then split a baguette (my favourite is Costco's ciabatta stick), put it on a baking sheet, spoon the tomatoes on and bake at 375 until I can smell garlic and things are heated through.  With a regular baguette, I should havebrushed the whole cut surface with more oil before baking.  This isn't needed with the ciabatta because of the texture of the bread.  I used the extra on garlic bread a couple of nights later with the spaghetti, and it was delicious! 




But here it is on the baguette: