Recipe of the Week: Bruschetta

Looking for a healthy appetizer to bring to your New Year's party? And you also want people to eat it? Look no more, bruschetta is just the ticket. It's easy to make, definitely yummy, low cal and counts towards your daily veggie intake.



Bruschetta
Ingredients:
• 4 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1/3 cup basil leaves, sliced into narrow ribbons
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 10 (1/2– inch thick) slices French bread, cut at an angle, toasted (optional)

Preparation:
*Combine all the ingredients except the French bread
*Cover and let stand 30 minutes-2 hours in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to meld
*Top each bread slice with one tablespoon of tomato mixture.

If you don't want to go to the trouble of slicing the French bread, toasty crackers work too. Trader Joe's has great little toast crackers that are square and bite size. You could even try Melba toast or some other toasty crispy cracker.

To make it even easier, serve the bruschetta in a bowl with a spoon and let your guests scoop it onto the bread or crackers themselves.

And here's a tip to help you sound authentic if you're not already Italian. Bruschetta is pronounced broo-sket-ta. That's right, in Italian the 'ch' is not soft, but rather hard like a 'k'. So no more saying broo-shet-ta!

Enjoy and have a fruit and veggie filled day!

This recipe was generously provided by the Los Angeles County Nutrition Program's Ask the Dietitian program.

(photo courtesy of Giovanni JL)

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