I am admittedly a tomato fanatic and I can honestly say that there are very few things that I look forward to more about summer than ripe tomatoes. Every week I fill my basket with at least a couple pounds of beautifully colored, sweet, juicy tomatoes. But even so, they only last a few days in my household. I just can’t help myself.
Today I’m going to share my go-to bruschetta recipe which is one of my favorite tomato recipes. If you have seen the movie Julie & Julia, you might remember that one of the many mouthwatering cooking scenes involves Julie preparing this dish – which is what gave me the inspiration to make it the first time.
The more colorful tomatoes you use the better. I also like to add some cherry tomatoes in order to have a variety of textures.
While you could just stick the bread slices in the toaster, toasting them on butter puts this dish over the top.
This is a very quick and easy recipe and I hope you’ll give it a try!
This recipe was adapted from The Pioneer Woman‘s website:
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved
- 5 heirloom tomatoes, diced
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 16 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 baguette/ciabatta
- 3-4 tablespoons Butter
Preparation
In a small skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and stir, lightly frying for about a minute, removing before the garlic gets too brown. Pour into a mixing bowl and allow to cool slightly.
Add tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper to the bowl. Toss to combine, taste and adjust basil and salt to your liking.
Cut the baguette into diagonal slices to allow for the most surface area possible. Melt the butter in a large skillet with 2 teaspoons of olive oil to prevent the butter from burning. Grill the bread on both sides, making sure they’re nice and buttery. Cook till golden brown on both sides.
To serve, give the tomato mixture a final stir and spoon generously over the slices of bread. While this dish works wonderfully as an appetizer, I often make it the main course of my meal. Happy cooking!









Sure, we know who has our favorite pluots or who bakes a mean vegan brownie, but every vendor has their own story. Sometimes it’s difficult to imagine these people outside of the market setting, but many of our vendors have a lot going on outside of their market personas. Can you guess which vendor is a belly dancer or who works at an investment firm? The farmers market thing just seems so natural, but there are multiple layers to these proverbial onions!
This week, we will highlight a dancer. She is also known as Maria Young, the vendor at the
etting back in the swing of things and would like to begin dancing more. Maria stated, “I’m older and cannot move like I used to, but man, it just feels good.” While we wish her luck in finding the best West African Dance crew, you can still expect to see Maria and Crystal Eyes every week at MCM. All of the items that lay upon her beautifully-decorated table are naturally-found materials. She mainly sells crystals, jewelry, incense, sage, and palo santo at the market each Thursday from 4-8pm.


