Tomato and basil bruschetta

Bruschetta is a favourite of Alex's and he orders it everywhere.  One of our favourite  London restaurants is Scalini in Knightsbridge, where they always serve bruschetta alongside olives and bread sticks.  In Scalini they don't use basil, but I like to use basil when I make this at home.

This literally takes minutes, just as long as it takes you to chop tomatoes, basil and toast some bread.

Here's what you need:

1 small ciabatta loaf

handful of ripe tomatoes

1 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped

small handful of finely snipped chives

1 handful of fresh basil, chopped

extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling

1 cloves garlic, cut in half for rubbing

Roughly chop the tomatoes and tip them into a bowl with their juices. Mix in the crushed garlic, chopped basil and a generous glug of olive oil. Set aside to allow the tomatoes to marinate for a couple of minutes.

Then heat a griddle pan over a medium-high heat then add the sliced ciabatta and toast lightly on both sides, I like the griddle marks across the bread.

Drizzle extra virigin olive oil over the toasted ciabatta slice, then rub with the halved garlic cloves.

Then spoon the tomato mixture onto the warm ciabata.

Serve immediately with parma ham, bresaola, buffala mozzarella....

..and of course with love....xoxo