Sourdough bruschetta with cherries, ricotta, seeds, nuts and a miso dressing
The textures dance from crispy to creamy, from juicy and plump to crunchy, from smooth to hard, giving you pleasure with every bite
Published originally on my blog on 3 July 2017
Lately, my clothes, my face, my hair, my hands have all been covered in flour, because lately I’ve been making bread almost twice a week. It happens to me from time to time, this bread obsession, and each time it happens I enjoy it even more because we get to savor real bread, homemade bread, bread that has flavor and texture.
But what to do with all this bread, apart from eating it warm from the oven which is my absolute favorite thing to do? Well, bruschetta, what else? Seasonal fruits and vegetables are the best choices of course and since it’s cherry season, with the ruby red fruits taking over the markets and my fridge, I chose to top my bruschette with them.
Cherries, ricotta cheese, rocket, nasturtium leaves (picked from my very own (!!) plant, and those who know me understand what a feat this is since I manage to unintentionally kill every plant that enters my home within 24 hours), a mix of nuts and seeds —pumpkin seeds, black and white sesame seeds, hazelnuts —, and a flavor bomb which is the miso dressing. How I love miso you can’t even imagine!
This is a summer recipe, meaning it needs the minimum amount of effort to get an incredibly delicious outcome and there’s a plethora of flavors and textures going on in this seemingly simple bruschetta. There’s sweet flavor from the cherries, fresh, peppery and slightly bitter notes from the rocket and nasturtium leaves, nutty and earthy from the seeds and nuts, umami, salty flavor from the miso paste, while the sour flavor of the bread complements all the rest.
The textures dance from crispy (nuts) to creamy (ricotta), from juicy and plump (cherries) to crunchy (seeds), from smooth (dressing) to hard (bread crust) and they give you pleasure with every bite.
Get out your bread and your cherries and get on it!
Sourdough bruschetta with cherries, ricotta, seeds & nuts and miso dressing
Miso is a fermented paste made predominantly with soybeans but can also be made with rice or barley. I absolutely love its deep, umami flavor and I’ve been using it for years in savory and sweet dishes. There are numerous kinds of miso paste and here I used white miso (shiro miso), which is made with rice and has a milder flavor that’s suitable for dressings. Miso has a very interesting and multi-dimensional flavor but make sure to use good quality miso paste, otherwise the only flavor you’ll get will be that of salt.
The dressing is a marriage of sorts between Japan and Greece.