Three day old french bread – baguette cut in 1/2 inch slices – was toasted on the barbecue. The shallots, eggplant and garlic were sautéed on the side burner after being tossed with some lemon agrumato olive oil from Santa Fe Olive (Oil and Balsamic). When slightly browned, the eggplant cubes were then turned into the bowl with fresh, chopped, heirloom tomato and scissor-cut basil from the herb garden.
The eggplant was the first, black beauty from our garden. Some small animal was planning to have it for dinner before I chose to take it prematurely. It was about the size of the heirloom tomato. Remove the animal taste tests from the skin before chopping. Otherwise, leave the skin on – if young and fresh from the garden.
Equal parts tomato and eggplant in this bruschetta – and that seems like a good rule of thumb. A tablespoon of shallot, half that of garlic and twice the volume of basil – if you want to follow a recipe. One small eggplant and one large tomato made this plate that would serve four easily as an appetizer, but was dinner for the two of us, along with a small piece of Denver steak quickly cooked on the barbecue while the bruschetta made its way to its final presentation stage.
The wine was a rosé from Total Wine that I bought with the help of a young enthusiastic clerk who said it was very dry and the nicest rosé in the store. It came with a classy glass stopper instead of a cork.