Friday, April 20, 2012

Artichoke, feta and sundried tomato bruschetta



It is Friday and spirits are high.

To tell you the truth, I am dealing with my first-ever sinus infection and I feel like my whole face is a time bomb waiting to explode, but the week end is nearing, tomorrow evening F and I are going out on the town with friends and after two weeks of rain the weather should be getting better. So I am a happy gal.

This week end I am leaving you with a recipe for a delicously addictive bruschetta (pronounced brusketta, not brushetta please!) that you can easily store in your pantry for whenever the craving hits or unexpected guests ring your door bell.  Well, to be honest it is not technically bruschetta, because it does not involve garlic, fresh tomatoes and copious amounts of delicious extra virgin olive oil etc. But there certainly is a crunch and lots of flavor. You can have it with a salad for a light lunch or prepare it alongside other dishes if you are planning a brunch. You can make it bite size and serve it with drinks for an aperitivo. You can eat the leftovers with a spoon directly out of a bowl standing in front of your fridge at 3:00a.m. for all I care.  
Just make it! Have a great week end.



Ingredients
feta cheese
sundried tomatoes
artichoke hearts (canned or frozen)
pepper
crusty bread

This is another one of those ideas rather than recipes, so I did not specify quantities. It depends how many people you are making it for and how much of each ingredient you want. You can obviously add ingredients (kelemata olives, garlic?) or swap them, but this combination was outstanding. I used a standard sized package of feta, one jar of artichokes (about eight smallish ones, the simple kind preserved in water, not the fancy expensive kind preserved in olive oil) and a handful of sundried tomatoes preserved in olive oil. I blended the tomaotes and artichokes together, keeping them a little chunky while heating some bread in the oven. I then added some crumbled feta to the mixture, using a fork to break it down. When the bread was warm and crunchy, I spread the mixture on it, drizzled it with some of the umami-rich oil from the tomatoes and dusted it with freshly ground black pepper. Heaven.

I was inspired to make this by a picture I saw a little while ago on Foodgawker that I just can't seem to find anymore. I would love to link back to you if you know who you are!

22 comments:

  1. Simple delicious flavours, what's not to love. Even at 3am. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yummy!!!! I love to whip up creamy spreads full of flavor in my newly acquired Kitchenaid food processor and eat them to my heart's content. Especially since I still have some artichoke bottoms in the freezer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Karen (Back Road Journal)April 22, 2012 at 5:15 PM

    This simple recipe sounds great! Hope you feel better and enjoy your outing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello. I learned about you from Nicole at And Baby Cakes Three. I like the way you noted this as more of an idea than a recipe because this is the way I typically use recipes, as inspiration. Your combination of ingredients here look great. I like the idea of drizzling the sun dried tomato oil on top. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you were... inspired. Off to check out your blog, I trust Nicole's taste ;o)

      Delete
  5. These kind of recipes with just a steer on ingredients are my favourite kind - spontaneous and infinitely adaptable! And thanks for mentioning the pronunciation of bruschetta - I always want to correct people when they say 'brushetta'! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why can't we just correct people? I am so tempted here all the time with English but I don't want to hurt people's feelings. That is the good thing about a blog, hehe

      Delete
  6. I hope your sinuses are feeling better by now. My husband had a rough time recently too with his allergies and sinuses and finally tried the Neti Pot- basically cleansing with saline and loves it. Maybe a farmacia would have those? Don't remember seeing them there...
    This bruschetta looks tempting, i'd eat it by the spoonful! It kills me how people mispronounce such a beautiful word- I always correct my family (stepmom in particular) and the correction never sticks :( I guess why most people are so bad at languages...

    SO---- you are coming to NY???? So excited! I need details!! Send me an email! andbabycakesthree@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Funny, you are the third person today who mentioned the Neti Pot... Moomser has one, but not sure if she bought it here or in the States. Have Dr appointment this evening because it got pretty out of control on the week end. Will be coming to NY and will write you details via email. My stepmom is a "brushetta" pronouncer too (no offense meant P, hehe) and goodness knows how I pronounce Thai or Japanese dishes, but I am only too happy if someone corrects me.

      Delete
  7. Love the idea of having this with aperitivo- a sly negroni and a few of these is exactly what I crave come 6.30pm...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh no. Oh no, I can't. They really do look too awesomely addictive. I remember when I used to eat bruschetta every single night!

    Hope you're feeling better!! <3<3

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow these look great....never had artichoke in Bruschetta. Sounds interesting:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Nina! Yeah, that is why I wrote it is not technically a bruschetta... but that word just makes them sound even better, which they are.

      Delete
  10. this is how I know you're my gal because the topping on that bruschetta are three of my favourite (sun dried tomato, feta and artichokes)!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am so making this tonight. You never have enough easy bruschetta recipe - especially when you can't wait for the weekend to arrive...

    ReplyDelete

Leave a suggestion, opinion or your own experience. I love hearing from you.