Soccer Soccer everywhere !! Should I call it a Soccer fever?

(It's not that I hate Soccer nor that I don't appreciate the game. Yet another thought which crossed my mind.)

Color pencil sketch. :-)
It took a day long to complete it !!

Beauty lies within is so much true. Sketched this lady three and half years ago.

Yes. It surprised my taste buds !!

Little was I fascinated about Italian cuisine until I tasted this mouth watering appetizer when I recently visited an Italian Restaurant with a dearest friend of mine and my lovely sis. All it contained was very common ingredients that we use in day to day cooking. But, I least expected that the selective combination of those ingredients would turn into a mouth watering, healthy appetizer.

I'm sure you are now wanting to know what it is !! I had a bite and could feel the crispness of a roasted bread, almost like a wafer, before I registered it in my mind felt the softness of... and it tasted hot, sour and spicy.. A perfect combination of flavors. Added to this was restaurant's ambiance. Catchy music with nature's fresh air coming in unlike A.C's.

Had to do good amount of search to find the perfect recipe and here is the one..

Ingredients:

• 6 or 7 ripe plum tomatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 6-8 fresh basil leaves, chopped.
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 baguette French bread or similar Italian bread
• 1/4 cup olive oil 

Method:

Prepare the tomatoes first. Parboil the tomatoes for one minute in boiling water that has just been removed from the burner. Drain. Using a sharp small knife, remove the skins of the tomatoes. (If the tomatoes are too hot, you can protect your finger tips by rubbing them with an ice cube between tomatoes.) Once the tomatoes are peeled, cut them in halves or quarters and remove the seeds and juice from their centers. Also cut out and discard the stem area. Why use plum tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes? The skins are much thicker and there are fewer seeds and less juice.

Make sure there is a top rack in place in your oven. Turn on the oven to 450°F to preheat.

While the oven is heating, chop up the tomatoes finely. Put tomatoes, garlic, 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, vinegar in a bowl and mix. Add the chopped basil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Slice the baguette on a diagonal about 1/2 inch thick slices. Coat one side of each slice with olive oil using a pastry brush. Place on a cooking sheet, olive oil side down. You will want to toast them in the top rack in your oven, so you may need to do these in batches depending on the size of your oven. Once the oven has reached 450°F, place a tray of bread slices in the oven on the top rack. Toast for 5-6 minutes, until the bread just begins to turn golden brown.

Alternatively, you can toast the bread without coating it in olive oil first. Toast on a griddle for 1 minute on each side. Take a sharp knife and score each slice 3 times. Rub some garlic in the slices and drizzle half a teaspoon of olive oil on each slice.
 
Align the bread on a serving platter, olive oil side up. Either place the tomato topping in a bowl separately with a spoon for people to serve themselves over the bread, or place some topping on each slice of bread and serve. If you top each slice with the tomatoes, do it right before serving or the bread may get soggy.

And most importantly not to forget to add love and care to it while you serve without which the dish wouldn't taste better. :-)

Finally, this easy to make and tasty stuff is called Bruschetto!! Sounds weird? It did for me, when I first noticed it on the menu card. But, it is one of the most common Italian appetizer. :-)