If there is one thing that never fails during the summer evenings in the company, they are the bruschetta. We prepare them with a seasonal ingredient: eggplants!
The bruschettas are tasty, simple and beautiful to serve because they can be seasoned in a thousand ways, with different ingredients, from vegetables to creams, from cheeses to cold cuts, and everyone always likes them.
And among all the bruschetta that can be done, in the summer they cannot miss those with eggplant which are an excellent seasonal vegetable.
But how many ways can eggplants be prepared to enrich a bruschetta? We offer you at least five. But first, here are some tips.
Bruschette: which bread?
Choose a fresh bread with a crispy crust. Avoid bread enriched with olives, walnuts or other because it would overload the simple taste of bruschetta. The classic is ideal pugliese bread, the Tuscan or any type of homemade bread, with or without salt. You can toast the bread on a hot plate, in the oven or on the barbecue. Do it just before serving the bruschetta so they will be hot and crunchy. Remember to always dress with a little oil and that it is an excellent extra virgin olive oil.
How to choose aubergines
Aubergines are in season from June to October and the freshest ones are recognizable from the skin that is shiny and well stretched, without wrinkles and dents. If you prefer a sweet taste choose the clear and round variant, otherwise the longer one with a dark skin and a bitter aftertaste. If you use dark ones, always remember to work them first with salt to eliminate the bitter taste. To make it cut and not too thin slices and sprinkle with coarse salt. Then place them in a colander and cover them with a weight that can be a large plate or a lid. After an hour or two, wash and dry them.
Cover them during cooking to soften them. If you want to leave them crispy and firm, instead, salt them over a high heat without a lid until they are toasted. You can add it to flavor tomatoes and plenty of fresh basil. Make the bruschetta with the aubergines and a few cubes of mozzarella and bake them again for a minute. Also excellent with burrata and grated lemon rind.
Aubergines in oil
Always keep a jar of eggplant in oil in the pantry because it will come in handy whenever you feel like a delicious vegetable bruschetta. Drain the aubergines well before putting them on the warm bread and add the chopped parsley and if you want also a sliced ham or ham.
Eggplant cream
To prepare an eggplant cream you have two alternatives. You can put an entire eggplant pierced with a fork and wrapped in aluminum foil in the oven at 200 ° for 30 minutes. Once soft, remove the peel and blend the inside with salt, garlic, oil and parsley, preparing a sort of baba ganoush, a cream typical of Middle Eastern cuisine.
Alternatively, cook the aubergines in the pan with the lid as we suggested before, and once they are soft, blend them adding oil.
Baked aubergines
If you do not feel like grilling aubergines, you can also cut them into slices and cook them in the oven, perhaps sprinkling them with breadcrumbs and Parmesan to make them crunchy and tastier. Then accompany them on the bruschetta with the sausage or with a very tasty spreadable cheese.
Alternatively, make some aubergine pizzas by sprinkling each slice, once cooked, with tomato and mozzarella before baking it again for a couple of minutes. These bruschettas will also appeal to children.
With the aubergines there are then these unusual recipes to experiment and all the ways to use those grills!
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