Bruschetta with Stracciatella and Anchovies, Confit Tomatoes and Lemon Zest
With crusty bread topped with roasted tomatoes, creamy stracciatella and anchovies for a final burst of flavour, this gorgeous bruschetta from Letitia Clark is the perfect laid-back antipasto to serve all summer long.
Introduction
This is based on one of the most memorable pizza slices I have ever eaten. It was a simple pizza slice made with a good chewy and crisp dough, topped with just a hint of sweet-sharp tomato, then a large blob of creamy stracciatella and atop this a fat, juicy anchovy – so far, so familiar – but the final flourish adorning the fishy sliver was a tiny and perfect squiggle of lemon zest. This fragrant touch was utterly inspired and altered the entire dish, elevating it into something completely different and delicious. Stracciatella is the exploded inside of a burrata (strings of mozzarella muddled with cream). If you can’t find it, smush a burrata onto the bruschetta for much the same result. If you are a keen pizza maker, by all means make your signature dough and top it with this (lemon squiggle, straciatella and anchovy after cooking), otherwise you can cut a wee corner and make the most wonderful bruschetta of your life. As with all ‘things on toast’, the quality of the ingredients is key. This is equally true of pizza.
Ingredients
| 4 slices of | your best bread (I like a white sourdough) |
| best-quality extra virgin olive oil | |
| sea salt | |
| A few | tomatoes or a couple of fresh sweet ones |
| 4 generous tbsp | stracciatella (or burrata) |
| 4 fat | anchovy fillets |
| 4 little squiggles of | lemon zest |
Method
Preheat the oven to 160ºC fan (180ºC/350ºF).
Put the bread onto a baking tray (pan), drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt, then toast in the preheated oven for 10–15 minutes. Alternatively, griddle the bread until toasted.
You can either use the fresh sweet tomatoes as they are, or confit them. To confit the tomatoes, throw them into a baking tray with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt in the preheated oven and roast for 10–15 minutes as long as your bread cooks, until they burnish and burst.
Top each slice of bread with a couple of squished confit tomatoes, a generous dollop of stracciatella and then a fat anchovy. Finish with a little curl of lemon zest, then drizzle with lots of extra oil and eat with your fingers, messily.
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