When I Don't Feel Like Cooking I Make This Bruschetta Pasta

Bruschetta pasta was one of my ideas when I was trying to make bruschetta and realized I didn't have bread. So I said, I'm going to use pasta and I'm gonna make this bruschetta pasta salad. This is easy, refreshing. One of the best summer meals on a hot day. Ingredients, some nice, fresh tomatoes. Get those tomatoes that are perfect for salad. Two garlic cloves. Some fresh basil, extremely important. Extra virgin olive oil. Salt and pepper. Get some nice fusilli. I've got about 300 grams of fusilli here and I believe it's the perfect pasta for pasta salad. We're not gonna use any pecorino or parmigiano cheese because it doesn't go well with this pasta salad. Instead, we're gonna do toast breadcrumbs. So we need some breadcrumbs. I've got about 10 tablespoons. Some parsley and lots of love. You can also use chili flakes if you want. The toasted breadcrumbs is gonna be our cheese. Okay, it's gonna be the toppings for this pasta and it's gonna take the pasta to the next level. So we quickly, on a medium low heat, we have to toast the bread. Doesn't take long. So what we're going to do is you put some extra virgin olive oil. I would say four, five tablespoons. Be generous. I'm gonna put one of the garlic in there, right? So we have one garlic for the salad and one garlic for the toasted breadcrumbs. We're gonna, we're gently going to cook the garlic for about 30 seconds, trying to release the oil, the flavors from the garlic. And now we add the breadcrumbs, chopped parsley. And now we toss this gently on a medium low heat. If you wanna add chili flakes, please go for it, okay? I've got kids, I'm not gonna put chili flakes, but chili flakes is extremely important for this. Now, this is not gonna take long. It's gonna take just a couple of minutes. You can see how the bread is easily, easily tossing. Look at that. This used to be called poor man parmigiano. People were not able to afford parmigiano pecorino cheese. They used to do this with stale bread. Breadcrumbs, parsley, and this pleases everyone. Look, in less than two minutes, we have it. Look, can you see how toasted it is? Can you see how the bread is toasted? You can see it change color from pale to nice, dark brown. Now we're gonna add, this is beautiful, toast breadcrumbs, modica turrata, they say in Sicily. Look at that. Some people like to add salt into it, go for it, but we're gonna put salt in the tomatoes. I'm sure you wanna ask me, can I use panko? Yeah, of course, you can use panko, but I try to keep this Mediterranean and use more of an Italian style breadcrumb. Bruschetta, Bruce, like Bruce, and Bruce's surname is Ketta, with a K. So Bruce, Ketta, easy. This is one of the most simple and beautiful things to make, but it needs to be done the right way. There is a procedure to follow, and I'm gonna show you how to do it. Get a large pot of water. Let's put a tablespoon of sea salt in the boiling water. Now this fusilli need to be cooked for 10 minutes to be al dente. We want to make sure that this pasta is cooked al dente, otherwise it will become too mushy. Even if you take the pasta out one minute before it's al dente, it's fine. So I'm gonna cook it al dente for about 10 minutes. Make sure you always stir the pasta when you put it in. For the first two, three minutes, I will stir at least two or three times. We're going to make the classic, most famous bruschetta topping, which is the basil, tomatoes, and garlic with extra virgin olive oil. But there is a way to do it, okay? We're using simple ingredients, but we want to maximize the flavors. And to do that, we need to follow a strict procedure, okay? The first thing we want to do is how we cut the tomatoes. We are not gonna cut tomatoes on a chopping board because the juice will go on the chopping board. Instead, we're gonna cut the tomatoes straight in a bowl. So we remove the green part. Nobody wants to eat this. And then we just cut it in a rough way. It doesn't have to be precise, okay? And you cut it this way. And can you see the juice is going inside the bowl? That's important, the juice. That's gold, okay? So do not do this on any chopping boards. It's the mistake number one. This is just how you do it. My great-grandmother used to do this. My grandmother, my family, when I work in restaurants, we used to do it. It's an important thing to do. It's basic, basic rules in Italian cooking. Now, this is a very, very important task. People forget. We need to get the juice out of the tomatoes, okay? And it needs time. We can't really put pressure on the tomatoes, okay? Yes, the tomatoes could be ready right now to be used. But if you really wait 10 minutes or 30 minutes, you get more juice out of it and more flavors. Let's help the juice getting out from the tomatoes. So let's put some extra virgin olive oil. Be generous, please. I'm not counting how much extra virgin olive oil I use. So I would say at least five tablespoons. Great, now with the garlic, we can use a garlic crusher, which I absolutely love, okay? But because it's a salad, you can also cut it by hand, okay? So there's no right or wrong for this. Most people in Italy will cut the garlic by hand with a knife, and because you want a little bit of bite of the garlic. Again, with the same knife here, we're gonna cut little pieces of garlic. See how easy it is? Little, little chunks of garlic. It's basically more like shaving than slicing, I would say. See, it's nice and thin. But again, if you like a chunkier, make a chunkier. It's completely up to you. Maybe this is the most important ingredient that tomatoes need. Tomatoes don't perform without the basil. So we're gonna put basil. We're gonna break the basil straight in the tomatoes. Again, no chopping board. If you use chopping boards, we're gonna have big problems because the oil, the flavors from the basil will go on the chopping board, and you only enjoy 50%, or even less, of the freshness of the tomato, the flavors of basil. So to really get the basil to perform, you do this. You don't learn these tricks in a restaurant. You learn this in kitchens with nuns, with old-school cooks. Now we add salt and pepper, and you choose how much salt and pepper you want, okay? You can go crazy for it. Now at this point, use your hands to mix it, or just use a wooden spoon or any spoon, and we want to mix. This is very important to do because we help the tomato juice to come out of the tomatoes. Can you see how juicier it is already? Look at that. See, I'm using a Pyrex here, so you can see through. You can see what's happening with the tomatoes. This is so easy, but see, I still see people making mistakes with this. Amazing flavors. See, normally I would say you have to cook the garlic, but in this case, you cannot cook the garlic. The garlic is a supporting actor to get out with the basil. It's only been five minutes, and look how much juice we already have. Look how important, look at that. I just want you to pay attention to that. Can you see that? See? That's gold, guys. That's so important. These will give flavors to the pasta. Pasta is ready, so we're going to take it out. Now, the pasta is ready, but we don't want to put the pasta straight in the tomatoes. We don't want to ruin the tomatoes, okay? We want this fusilli pasta to be at room temperature or maybe warm, you know, and then we can mix it up with the tomato salad. At the moment, we're going to put it in a separate bowl and wait until it cools down. It will take a couple of minutes. Just keep in mind that this is good for flavors because the tomatoes are still releasing juices, okay? So the more you wait, the better it is. While we wait for the pasta to cool down, I will say add a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, just like that, because we don't want the pasta to get stuck. Want to avoid that. And then you gently stir so we spread the extra virgin olive oil everywhere. Guys, to maximize the flavors of the salad, you need to serve the pasta cold. You will enjoy this best, okay? Make the pasta cold, add more extra virgin olive oil. Don't be afraid. More extra virgin olive oil you add, more flavors you add, and you avoid the pasta to get stuck together as well. We're about to add the pasta in the tomatoes, and I want you to see what happened within 10 minutes. Look, the juice is now covering the tomatoes. This is impressive. See, it doesn't take long to create flavors, okay? And again, this is simplicity. There is nothing else apart from extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, basil, and garlic. And look at that juice. Look at this wonderful juice. The tomato salad is ready. The pasta is ready. Let's put them together. So let's put the pasta in. It is very important that you cook the pasta al dente because if you don't do that, and you overcook the pasta, the pasta will break. But look how good the pasta is still. The pasta is not breaking, see? The pasta is still amazing. And I can guarantee you, when you go and eat it, it's soft, okay? It's not gonna be al dente anymore, but it will still keep the shape. I'm just going to toss it now because I love tossing it. For me, it's very important that we toss. Now we have the pasta absorbing the beautiful juice from the tomatoes, which is powerful, okay? We have the basil releasing more flavors, okay? The oil from the basil giving more flavors to the pasta. We have the garlic adding a beautiful kick. We're ready to serve. So just want you to pay attention. See, the sauce has been absorbed by the pasta, which is a very good sign that the pasta is very good and likes to become friends with the sauce. I will just pour all of it in. I'm sure we'll put everything in there. Don't want any garlic or tomatoes to be left alone. Now is the time to put a toasted bread crumb on top, okay? This is gonna add a lot of beautiful flavors to this pasta salad. Here we go. Be generous. Adding the toasted bread crumbs on this pasta, oh, it's one of the most shocking, surprisingly amazing things you can do in life. It can show you that nothing goes to waste. I've got this leftover. What am I gonna do? Put it in a Ziploc bag and store it in the fridge. It will last you for weeks. See, the pasta is still holding the shape. The tomato is beautiful. The bread crumbs adds that beautiful crunchiness with flavors to this dish. This is marvelous. Now it's time to taste this wonderful pasta salad. Yum. Flavors of summer. The bread crumb is the first thing that you feel, that crunchiness. Then you've got the garlic, the tomato juice. It's all over your mouth. You know, it's beautiful, beautiful. Fresh. Crunchy bread crumbs on my lips. Beautiful tomato flavors in my mouth. The pasta, it's beautiful. It's not al dente anymore, but it holds the shape. It's got a beautiful bite. And perfect for pasta salad. So good. I'm glad I didn't cook it the extra minute. Never make that mistake. Mm, such a beautiful dish that you can do in 15 minutes. You're craving bruschetta, but you don't have the bread? This is how you do it. This is a life-changing experience. And fusilli pasta, I think is the right one. Perfect. Maybe penne would work as well, but fusilli, it's perfect for pasta salad. Thank you so much for watching this episode. I will see you on the next Vincenzo's Plate video recipe. E ora si mangia. Vincenzo's Plate.