It’s official. It’s going to be a Bruschetta Bar kinda summer. It’s my latest and most favorite way to entertain and I’m 100% sure that you’re all going to love the concept. Are you on board? Great… here’s the deal...
Throwing a dinner party can be a lot of work! Am I right? And sometimes you want to have everyone over for a little impromptu bash and not spend the entire day slaving away in the kitchen. Bruschetta Bars are the answer. It’s essentially the best of the best when it comes to tapas style eating. Grilled bread, tons of vegetables, different kinds of sauces like basil vinaigrette and tomato confit, meats, various cheeses…. and voila… your dinner party is done.
Last month I cooked the inaugural Bruschetta Bar party at my best friends house. It was a mega success and I can promise it will be one of many this coming summer. (and they may all be at his house, because I'm quite excellent at inviting myself over for meals!)
It all starts with a few key ingredients – and one of the most important is grilled bread. This is essential! From there, we can build it up with any kind of assorted toppings you’d like. I’m currently loving an assortment of: Basil Vinaigrette, Tomato Confit, Pea Pesto, fresh arugula, charred corn, caramelized onions, caramelized mushrooms, Burrata, ricotta, goat cheese, prosciutto and thinly sliced salami. Obviously you can mix and match different toppings with different sauces and go to TOWN!
Here’s the best part – you can assign some of these topping bowls to friends! So while you might make the grilled bread and the sauces, you can have people bring over caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, different kinds of cheeses and meats, etc. How brilliant is that?
Then when it comes time to eat you can all make your own personalized concoction from the Bruschetta Bar and dig in. It’s an interactive dinner, which makes for the best kinds of dinner parties if you ask me!
Stuck in a dinner rut? Looking for new delicious dinner ideas? Check out my roundup of 50+ easy dinner ideas here.
Bruschetta Bar
Ingredients
- 1 large loaf of bread sliced into ½ inch pieces
- olive oil for drizzling
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 recipe Basil Vinaigrette
- 1 recipe Saffron Tomato Confit
- 1 recipe Red Pepper Sauce
- 1 recipe Spring Pea Pesto
- 1 handful fresh arugula
- 1 cup charred corn you can take an extra shortcut and grab a bag of frozen charred corn at Trader Jpe's
- ½ cup caramelized onions
- ½ cup sautéed mushrooms
- assorted cheeses
- assorted meats
Instructions
- Heat a grill over medium high heat.
- Generously drizzle the bread with olive oil on both sides. Using a pair of tongs, transfer the slices of bread to the grill and grill for a few moments until grill marks are present. Flip and continue to grill the bread on the other side for a minute more. Remove and set aside.
- Remove the garlic from it's paper and carefully rub the garlic on the toasted bread to give it an extra layer of flavor.
- Arrange the toppings on a large platter or table and serve with the grilled bread.
Notes
Photo Credit: Matt Armendariz
Food Styling Credit: Adam Pearson
What were the 3 cheeses that you used
Hi Gaby - I made a Bruscetta bar in your honor this past weekend and it was the bomb. Thanks for the recipes and ideas!
PS - I love your basil vinaigrette so much that I could drink it!!
What type alcoholic beverage would you recommend with a brushetta bar?
Wine!! Rosé for this time of year for sure
This looks awesome, Gaby! We are having friends over this weekend for the first time and I want to do something fun. Could I serve this as a main course? If so, what would you pair with it? I'm thinking maybe a flank steak because it seems like we need more food, but I want to keep it casual. Any thoughts/ideas?
I do it as the main course frequently!! I usually do some grill steak, chicken of fish and a salad, and this and call it a night!!
The redirecting to the App Store is frustrating
Hey Chad, where is this happening for you? LMK and we can troubleshoot
just had my tech team look into it - should be fixed! LMK if you still have any issues
Very great ideas and recipes. Want something special for high teas
LOVE this idea and the presentation is so beautiful! I'm going to try replicate it for my husband's birthday coming up. Thank you for the inspiration. Can you tell me approximately how many will the whole bar feed?
Thanks again!
depends on how much of each little dish you put out - I usually do it for about 8-10 people!
I didn't have Matt + Adam to style mine, and I didn't have the giant slab board, but I improvised with a big piece of paper and some wax paper to keep things from soaking through. This was incredibly easy to put together and I was really pleased with the results. The recipes were all delicious and all my guests loved it. Thanks for the great idea!
https://instagram.com/p/4QTctCMo5Y/
GORGEOUS!!!!! 🙂 so glad you enjoyed it!
Where did you find the oversized cutting board? I have been looking everywhere for a big slab or board like that, and no luck.
it was from this random store in Chelsea Market in NYC! I find them on Ebay a lot - and in random thrift stores 🙂