A Quirky Bruschetta with Strawberries, Tomatoes and Fruity Ficotto Cream

Finally the summer has invaded Europe, even though in some countries, summer hit with tropical temperatures, including Italy. During one of our alfresco dinner in the garden we prepared this delightful bruschetta, mixing cherry tomatoes with strawberries, giving the bruschetta a quirky twist. We used Ficotto cream, a niche product rediscovered in the enogastronomic history of the Basilicata region. It is made from the must of the figs and it can be used as a fruity-sweet alternative to the cream of balsamic vinegar.

The bread has to be a hight quality bread, like the one we used for this bruschetta. It’s been prepared by “Il Pane di una Volta“, a Swiss company that supplies home-made sourdough bread focusing on high quality ingredients, selected grains, no chemical or artificial additives, no commercial yeast (only natural wild yeast) reproducing the artisanal process of bread, before industrial production.

If you want to know more about “Il Pane di una Volta”, please scroll all the way down *.

We have also to thank Da Vinzi, an Italian wholesaler who imports many niche products from the Basilicata region to Switzerland, for making us taste his Ficotto cream.

🍷Francesca & Marinella🍴

RECIPE:

BRUSCHETTA

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INGREDIENTS

• 1 slice of bread (about 1 cm thick)
• 2-3 cherry tomatoes
• 1 strawberry
• salt
• basil leaves
• extra virgin olive oil
• cream cheese (like goat cream cheese)
• Ficotto cream or Balsamic Vinegar

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INSTRUCTIONS

• Chop the tomatoes and the strawberry up into small pieces. Mix the tomatoes, strawberry, extra virgin olive oil, and the hand-torn basil leaves in a bowl, adding a pinch of salt.
• Let the bowl sit in the fridge while preparing the toasted bread. Toast the bread for 5 to 6 minutes until lightly browned on both sides. You can also use a grill or a pan until the bread is crispy.
• Then spread the cream cheese over the top of the bread and drizzle with a little oil.

• Then top each slice of bread with some of the tomato and strawberry mixture. Drizzle with the Ficotto cream and serve immediately.

*Artisanal Bakery – “Il pane di una volta“
“Choosing for artisanal sourdough bread means a better choice for our health, our environment and less food waste”

Company description: “Il pane di una volta” supplies home-made sourdough bread focusing on high quality ingredients, selected grains, no chemical or artificial additives, no commercial yeast (only natural wild yeast) reproducing the artisanal process of bread, before industrial production, the company was opened on 1st of September 2018. Currently, Grazia -the owner and baker – is manufacturing bread upon request for private customers.

Baking concept: “We cannot live without water and we cannot live without bread”. Bread is life, historically bread is the main nutrient to sustain a family in time of poverty and deprivation. When bread cannot be on a table, civil clashes might happen. Ancient civilizations (Egyptian, Greek, Roman) have processed grains developing the fermentation process and surprisingly, until now bread is one of the main food to be shared on a table.

In our Era commercial bread has taken over the home baking. We can get daily beautiful, perfect looking bread, very poor in term of taste and nutrient and very short in shelf life. Being a passionate home baker, I have decided to become a chef and developed my baking skills to reproduce the process of baking as in the old time with no machinery and only fermenting the dough with “lievito madre”, a sourdough stiff culture very common all over Italy used in our traditional Christmas cake such as Panettone and Pandoro.

Advantages of baking bread with slow fermentation: High quality organic and stoneground not refined flour, water, salt and long fermentation are the unique ingredients of my bread. Time is the main component for an earthy, savory loaf of bread, easier to digest, low in sugar and long in lasting. Sourdough bread can last easily for a week. Besides that, there are several scientific researches on the digestibility of sourdough bread even in people affected by gluten intolerance. The whole process is made by hand, I only “feed” my sourdough starter with a food mixer, while the kneading, bulk fermentation, shaping is hand-made. Choosing for artisanal sourdough bread means a better choice for our health, our environment and less food waste due to the long shelf life.