Bruschetta with Impressive Wilted Greens

Our garden has recently produced some beautiful tomatoes. Just before we packed up our kitchen I made John and I some bruschetta using a recipe from a cookbook that my brother edited at Grinnell College. The book, Fantasia of Flavors, was named after the food house my brother lived in last year at school.

I had been wanting to make something from this cookbook ever since he had given it to me a few months ago and this recipe title tickled me. I made a few changes due to the ingredients we wanted to use up.

Bruschetta with Impressive Wilted Greens

1 baguette (cut lenghtwise)
greens (I used swiss chard)
1/2 cup of shredded parmesan
1 cup of whole almonds
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
garlic clove
coarse sea salt
ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400F. Boil a pot of salted water. Add the greens once it has reached a rolling boil and remove it from the heat.

Cut the garlic clove in half and rub each piece of bread with it. Coarsely chop the garlic and arrange on the bread. Place on a baking sheet and then into the preheated oven for about 2 minutes or until lightly toasted. Remove the greens from the water and dry on a paper towel.

Remove bread from the oven and and sprinkle each piece with olive oil, coarse sea salt, and ground black pepper. Spread the dried greens evenly over the bread to cover. Sprinkle with the parmesan, dot with the almonds and pour olive oil and balsamic vinegar generously over this. Add a bit more coarse sea salt and ground black pepper to taste.

Place into the preheated oven once again and bake about 10 minutes. Serve at once.

I also made another type of bruschetta following the above recipe, though omitting the swiss chard, parmesan, and almonds in favor of basil and fresh tomatoes.

Thanks Evan! (I would also like to thank the writers/contributers: Katie Kleese, Brendan Mackie, Ilan Moscovitz and the photographer: Serge Giachetti)