Bruschetta Chop

Now that it's nearly the middle of September I am finally getting ripe tomatoes from my garden. With a huge bowl of yellow cherry tomatoes I decided to make a bruschetta inspired dish. After eating a bowl of it I thought it would be good on the pork chops sitting in the refrigerator, and I was right.

Before I got to dinner I tried a few failed experiments in making eggplant chips. My original hope was to bake little discs of eggplant that were firm enough, but not burnt, to hold a scoop of the bruschetta. Turns out eggplant is either burned to a crisp or too soft when perfectly baked. Raw zucchini slices would do nicely and taste delicious.

Ingredients for bruschetta mixture:
(Makes about a cereal bowl)

3-4 cloves garlic
5-6 sun dried tomatoes in oil (the jar from the store...I don't sun dry my own tomatoes)
1+ cup of tomatoes
1-2 tablespoons EVOO
2-3 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
s & p

Method:

Chop everything up and combine. Pour a little of the oil from the sun dried tomatoes into the bowl. Add a dash more EVOO if you need it. A splash of balsamic and some salt and pepper to taste. This stuff is seriously addictive. Make twice as much as you think you will want.

Use on meats, spoon onto zucchini or cucumber rounds as hors devours or just eat it straight. Use red, yellow and green tomatoes to make it pretty. Throw in some basil if you have it.

Here's how I used it tonight on my pork chops:

Heat lots of oil in a pan over medium high heat, cook chops on each side for a couple minutes then turn the heat down. Add some chopped sun dried tomatoes along with oil from the jar and some chopped cherry tomatoes to the pan. Add a dash of balsamic vinegar near the end. Cook until chops are done. Spoon bruschette mixture over and ENJOY!!