Every Thursday afternoon, after getting picked up from school by Tilana (the driver...it still feels weird to say that I have a driver), we pick up Mommy after her daily gym workout and go to Waitrose! Waitrose is kind of serving as my Trader Joe's and Idylwilde Farms (my favorite grocery stores in Mass) substitute in Dubai, so I always get excited to go. We returned one particular Thursday with a bunch of on-the-vine tomatoes from Holland, goat cheese (I had been wanting to get some ever since I had a lovely bagel breakfast served with salmon, poached eggs, goat cheese, and veggies at Circle in Dubai Media City), onions in balsamic vinegar, soft fresh white farmers' bread that makes heavenly toast, and our usual rustic olive bread loaf. Inspiration struck when I was thinking about what to have for dinner, as I suddenly remembered a pizza we had at Jumeirah Beach Residence with tomato, rosemary, and globs of goat cheese. The pizza was decent, compared to the otherwise not-so-great dinner experience (bad service, crowded, trying too hard to be authentic... and failing). As an added bonus, we had just bought a rosemary plant from a family on the Palm that was moving, and I was excited to try rosemary in EVERYTHING. And so dinner was born... (I gave it a nice fancy-sounding name)
Balsamic Tomato Bruschetta with Goat Cheese and Rosemary
Ingredients
- 2 tomatoes, thinly sliced (about 1/2 cm thick) & sprinkled with salt
- 4 pickled onions in balsamic vinegar, sliced into thin wedges (Waitrose)
- balsamic vinegar to taste
- sea salt & pepper to taste
- 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- 2 tbsp rosemary, chopped
- 4 slices farmhouse bread (Waitrose)
- 2 oz/28 g soft goat cheese (Soignon un-ripened, 4 peppers), crumbled
- extra-virgin olive oil to taste (optional)
Preheat oven to about 325 F/160 C.
Wrap garlic cloves in foil and place in oven.
Arrange tomatoes in single layer on baking sheet, top with balsamic onions. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, 1 tbsp rosemary, drizzle with balsamic vinegar.
Broil onion-tomatoes (leave oven on & garlic in) about 10 min, until slightly wrinkled and bubbling.
Meanwhile, toast bread until crunchy and golden. Remove onion-tomatoes & garlic from oven, peel garlic cloves (should be squishy), squash with knife and finely chop. Top toast with tomatoes, onions, garlic, remaining rosemary, goat cheese, salt & pepper if desired, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. If you want the goat cheese a bit more melted, throw it back in the oven for 2 minutes.
Variations: use mini bread rounds, crostini, or pizza dough as base
