Bruschetta a la Julie and Julia
July 16, 2010 in appetizer
A few weeks back I confessed my love of the movie Julie and Julia and almost immediately started getting comments, emails, and even tweets telling me that I just had to try the bruschetta that Julie prepares makes at one point during the movie. If you’ve seen the movie, there’s no way you didn’t notice this bruschetta. Julie fries the bread and chops up these big, plump tomatoes, then she and her husband talk about how amazing it is. And holy geez, did it look amazing.
So when my mom gave me a huge bag of fresh tomatoes this past weekend, I knew some were destined to become the J&J bruschetta. There are many recipes out there claiming to be the one but the general idea of all of them is tomatoes, basil, and the fried bread.
I don’t like tomatoes. I don’t think the texture matches the taste and it just throws me off. But for some reason I really enjoyed this. I think it was the crunchy bread with the tomato texture that did it for me. It was great. And shockingly enough, my husband loved it too. I worried he would say it was “chick food” but he definitely had more than 1 piece of bread.
I did have one issue. I tried to fry the bread. I tried in olive oil, in butter, in a dry hot pan. I eventually resorted to the toaster oven but if you can get yours that perfect shade of gold in a frying pan, do it! Do it and enjoy it and feel no guilt about the oil or the butter because as Julie says in the movie, “You can never have too much butter”.
- 1 lb ripe tomatoes, diced
- ½ cup fresh basil, chopped
- salt and pepper
- 1 loaf crusty French bread, sliced ¾ inch thick
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced in half
- ¼- 1/2 cup olive oil or butter
- Mix tomatoes and basil together and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter in frying pan and fry bread until golden brown on both side. Remove and drain on paper towel. Rub one side with garlic clove.
- Drain the tomato-basil mixture of excess liquid and spoon on to each slice of bread.
from Food.com
That looks so good! Too bad my darn tomato plants are 6 feet tall but not a single tomato on them. Grrr!
Hey! Just wanted to let you know, I also love this movie and always think of the Bruschetta when I think of the movie. I DVR’d it a few months ago and have watched it many times since,
Looks beautiful. Love the burst of color from the tomatos.
.-= Eliana´s last blog ..Latin Flair – Puerto Rican Shortbread Cookies =-.
This is one of my favorites! Your photo is so crisp and light. Love it!
Hi! I just found your blog through a comment on Healthy Tipping Point. From one fake ginger to the next – keep up the wonderful blogging! I’ve just spent the last half hour reading your posts, and I can’t wait to read more. This reminded me why bruschetta is one of my favorite appetizers – it’s such a perfect dish: simple, tasty, easy, and impressive!
I love the movie, I love bruschetta. Me want bite!
The trick to frying the bread…it’s not “olive oil OR butter”, It’s olive oil AND butter….perfect every time :o)
Ahh, I see! I will definitely be trying that soon! Thanks for commenting! :D
Tip:
Mix the tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper with:
a pinch of sugar, little dash of garlic powder, glug of olive oil and splash of balsamic vinegar. Trust me. Just do it.
I LOVED the movie and that bruschetta looks incredible! I can’t wait to try it as soon as my tomatoes are ripe!
.-= megan´s last blog ..Smores Whoopie Pies =-.
Amanda, how can you not like tomatoes?! So I was looking at your blog like I always periodically do after looking at LoSo’s food porn, and I chuckled when you said that you don’t like tomatoes but loved the bruschetta. Do you know how many people I’ve made bruschetta for that only like tomatoes prepared that way? haha :) Anyway, if you need to get rid of more tomatoes, try another bruschetta recipe that I ADORE. It’s called Double Tomato Bruschetta and it’s on allrecipes.com. A bit more ingredients but you’ll devour them so quickly, ugh! I’m getting hungry right now.
-Angelika
PS, I didnt want to make 2 seperate comments but I am so overjoyed that you posted the PB & sweet potato fry recipe. I have a bag of sweet potato fries in the freezer and no clue how I should prepare them. I will definitely be trying the peanut butter!! Thanks!
i am making this tomorrow night i cant wait soooooooo excited yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I tried this recipe and now its everyones favorite in my house..even my picky eating daughter..lol. the first time I fried the bread in 2 pans and it worked great..the second time I just broiled them in the oven. Worked great.
I loved your recipe- thank you! We followed it, only we used butter AND olive oil to fry it in, as Jill suggested. We also followed the tip from Mrs C and added a pinch of sugar, little dash of garlic powder, glug of olive oil and splash of balsamic vinegar to the tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper. We let that marinate for a half an hour.