Bruschetta

Bruschetta is grilled bread rubbed with garlic and topped with chopped tomato, basil and olive oil. It's served straight away, before the toast has any chance to soften under the topping — a bruschetta left to sit for even ten minutes has already started turning into something closer to panzanella.

What it actually is

Thick slices of bread are grilled or toasted until charred at the edges and crisp all the way through, then rubbed while still warm with a cut clove of garlic — just enough to perfume the surface, not so much that raw garlic dominates. A topping of diced ripe tomato, torn basil, salt and a generous pour of olive oil goes on immediately before serving, never in advance.

The timing is the entire craft: the bread has to stay audibly crisp under a topping that's inevitably a little wet, which means assembling it at the very last moment rather than building trays of it ahead of a service rush.

How it's served

• Immediately after topping, while the toast is still crisp.
• As an individual piece or two per starter portion, rarely a whole plate on its own.
• At room temperature, the bread warm from the grill, the topping fresh and unheated.

Writing it on a menu

• Flag the gluten in the bread.
• It's naturally vegan, worth flagging plainly on a menu heavy with dairy-based starters.
• Say if the topping varies — plain tomato, white bean, mushroom — since bruschetta genuinely differs by topping.
• Mention that it's assembled to order; a bruschetta made ahead and held has already lost its point.