Roasted Tomato and Garlic Bruschetta with Balsamic

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There is nothing more flavorful than roasted tomatoes and garlic in olive oil, drizzled with a bit of balsamic vinegar and garnished with fresh basil, on a summer day! Fresh, in-season produce and the way oil, vinegar, and sea salt makes the flavors of tomato pop is unrivaled. Which is exactly why you need to try this roasted tomato and garlic bruschetta appetizer with balsamic vinegar.

Spread on freshly made crostini, roasted tomato and garlic is hands-down the best summertime appetizer. The first time I made this, Alex and I seriously considered skipping dinner and just making a second batch instead!

Since everything bakes together in one dish, the tomatoes get infused with a potent garlicky flavor – and it tastes so good on crostini. Or fresh bread. Or with a spoon. However you choose to serve it, we guarantee you’re going to find this dish just as irresistible as we do.

What This Recipe Entails

This roasted tomato and garlic appetizer is so easy to make. All you need to do is smash the garlic, then add everything to a baking dish and let it cook in the oven.

• Prep time: 10 to 15 minutes
• Cook time: 35 minutes

Your prep time will vary depending on how quickly you can separate, peel, and smash the garlic cloves. Alex and I like to do this work together to speed it up! So if you have a willing partner, friend, or kid to help you out, the prep time will go by much faster.

Note that if you want to serve this bruschetta with homemade crostini, you’ll want to pop that in the oven during the last 8 to 10 minutes of cooking time. You can do all the prep work for the crostini after getting the bruschetta in the oven.

Roasted Tomato and Garlic Bruschetta Ingredients

You only need 6 ingredients to make this flavorful roasted tomato and garlic bruschetta:

• Sweet grape tomatoes
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Balsamic vinegar
• Fresh basil

Since the tomatoes and garlic are the main flavors in this recipe, make sure to buy the best tomatoes and garlic you can find! We love making this appetizer in the summer when tomatoes (and fresh basil) are in season.

Note that you’ll need a cooking olive oil for this recipe, not extra virgin. Cooking olive oil still has great flavor, but it can withstand higher temperatures than extra virgin olive oil.

Finally, make sure you pick out a high quality balsamic vinegar for this recipe. The flavor will really stand out since it gets drizzled over everything before serving.

How To Make Roasted Tomato and Garlic Bruschetta

It is seriously so easy to make this delicious summer recipe with minimal hands-on effort! Here’s what you need to do:

1. First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Next, add the grape tomatoes and smashed garlic cloves to a small baking dish. Drizzle generously with olive oil and season with a pinch of sea salt.
3. Cover the baking dish tightly with foil and bake for 35 minutes, until the tomatoes are juicy and the garlic is soft.
4. Finally, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and garnish with fresh basil leaves. Serve hot with crostini or fresh bread.

Make sure to smash the garlic cloves well before adding them to the baking dish – this step is crucial! If you don’t smash the garlic, it will take much longer to roast and the tomatoes will end up overcooked, or your garlic will end up too tough.

To check if everything is properly roasted, carefully peel back the foil and stick a fork in one of the garlic cloves. If it slides in easily with little to no resistance, the garlic is ready. You’ll know the tomatoes are cooked if they look soft and juicy and their skins have split.

How To Serve Roasted Tomato and Garlic Bruschetta with Balsamic

We love to serve tomato bruschetta on crostini. A little bit of crunch goes perfectly with the soft, juicy tomatoes and garlic in this recipe.

Here’s how we make a simple yet flavorful crostini for serving with roasted tomato and garlic bruschetta:

1. Slice a baguette into half-inch thick pieces. Lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with foil.
2. Drizzle the bread with olive oil and season with sea salt.
3. Bake at 400 degrees F for about 8 minutes, or until lightly toasted. They may not be visibly toasted, but a quick tap on the bread with your finger will tell you if they have crisped.

Since the crostini bake at the same temperature as the bruschetta, you can pop these in the oven towards the end of cooking. That way, you can have both fresh and hot at the same time!

You can also serve roasted tomato and garlic bruschetta with fresh, fluffy Italian bread if you don’t want to make crostini. The fluffy bread will soak up all the tomato juices (so delicious!). It makes the perfect appetizer or side dish for an Italian dinner!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

If you love tomatoes and garlic, it’s hard not to love this bruschetta recipe! It’s warm, savory, and garlicky, and goes perfectly with lightly toasted crostini as an appetizer or side dish.

Make our roasted tomato and garlic bruschetta for two as a date night appetizer, or scale it and serve it to a crowd at a party this summer. It’s a wonderful precursor to Italian dinners like burrata pasta, gnocchi, or Neapolitan pizza.

Try our roasted tomato and garlic bruschetta with balsamic and let us know if you love it by rating, commenting, and sharing below!