Central Italy: Le Marche, Lazio, Umbria, and Tuscany, 4 regions of delicious Italian food history. Here the summers are hot and long, and home to Italian delights such as the grain farro, the spice saffron, chestnuts, white beans, and truffles, and the world’s finest olive oils.
And here we find the origins, and fables, of Bruschetta.
The most common bruschetta legend is that olives harvested in November and December were taken to the local central Italian mill for pressing, the mill having a burning fireplace. The presenters to the mill brought local Italian bread, grilled it on the fireplace and rubbed it with garlic. The toasty bread served as a canvas to test, and to show off their prized oils.
Or a less romantic story is from “The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink” by writer John Mariani, stating “”Bruschetta. Toasted bread, often rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. Also schiena d’asino, soma d’aj in the south, and fettunta in Tuscany. Bruschetta has always been a way to salvage bread that was going stale by adding oil and seasonings. Sometimes the bread is entirely immersed in oil, but usually the oil is poured on the top after the bread is rubbed with a garlic clove. In recent years adding toppings, particularly chopped onions and tomatoes, has become popular in restaurants.”
Rumors and legends aside, Bruschetta wins our heart. Tuscan Chef Gabriele Corcos with his beautiful wife Debi Mazar have won our heart as well, with their delicious video version of Bruschetta with a surprising twist!
Check out all of their delicious recipes and fall in love with them here, at Under The Tuscan Gun.
BRUSCHETTA WITH SAUSAGE, BRIE CHEESE AND FRESH HERBS
Gabriele Corcos – Under The Tuscan Gun
Serves: 6
Prep Time: 5
Cooking Time: 15 min. for the sausage sauce + 5 min. in the broiler
Ingredients
6 slices of bread
2 pork sausages (mild or hot according to taste)
¼ Lb of Brie Cheese (or other semi-soft cheese)
¼ Red Onion
1 Handful of Rosemary
1 Handful of Sage
½ Glass of White Wine
Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
How to:
-getting ready-
Chop the Onion finely and rinse the herbs thoroughly. Chop the sage finely.
Slice the bread.
Pop the wine open and start sipping!
Cooking your dish
Open the Sausages and sauté the meat with the onion in a tablespoon of olive oil for about 5 minutes in a medium sized non stick pan, until the meat starts browning.
Add the half glass of wine, the rosemary and the sage.
Cook for about 5-7 minutes, until the wine has been completely absorbed, take off the fire and set aside.
Toast your bread on a fire grill, in a toaster or on the barbecue; do not use a sandwich press, otherwise you will make crackers.
Note: the correct pronunciation of bruschetta is “broo-sketta”. If the video was not clear enough, here is a sample sound clip from an Italian female that should help you say it the right way: