Bruschetta For Coleridge's Birthday

 Samuel Taylor Coleridge never went to Italy but I have a funny feeling he would have loved any dish  of Italian food for his birthday today Bruschetta is one of those dishes.It makes for a great lunch or dinner. It can be used as an appetizer or hors d'ouevre. A big plus is putting your own spin on it  - which I did.

Double layers bruschettas are not widely made.I decided to give it a try, using a white bean bruschetta and the traditional tomato. 

I couldn't find cannelini beans at Wal-Mart where I bought all the ingredients so chose Goya's white beans. I drained them and mixed them with a drizzle of olive oil. It was then slightly pureeing the mix iwith the immersion blender.

It was a bit creamier than what I expected. Next time I'll use a potato masher instead to produce a chunkier bruschetta. The next step was creating the tomato one. This was dicing the tomatoes and milling the basil in the herb mill. I used  four tomatoes and a handful of freshly picked basil. Then it was mincing one clove of garlic.

All this was mixed with a good glug of olive oil and a capful of red wine vinegar.It was then adding just a bit of sea salt and a grind of freshly ground pepper.

I should have used the pretoasted rounds but opted for Italian bread slices. These were a bit soft but not bad.

I sprinkled the tops with  Parma vegan Parmesan cheese for more flavor and crunch. It wasn't a bad mix and I plan on making it again. The recipe will be tweaked to make it more flavorful and the bean bruschetta less runny.

Would Coleridge have preferred this to his Devon cream tea as a birthday dinner? Hopefully. It's tasty and different, packed with flavors and textures.