Everything looks more elegant from overhead, so be sure to make guests stand on their chairs to admire before devouring.
Today, as luck would have it, my procrastination of both writing about Europe and canning all the beautiful produce my beautiful friend gave me (thanks Katie and River Root Farm!) resulted in my making one of my favorite summertime dishes, this steak bruschetta. Really, I should be thanking Katie for infecting me with that August ailment of canner's guilt, but that's neither here nor there. Actually, you should all be thanking me for this easy, delicious recipe!
This is about half of my loot from River Root Farm.
Even without a farmer friend to provide vegetables, this dish is affordable and easy. Long slices of toasted baguette, rubbed with garlic, slathered with long roasted tomatoes, thin tender slices of steak and topped with balsamic dressed, spicy arugula. What are you waiting for?
If you don't have rhododendron honey, you can't make this dish. Kidding!
This, like most dishes I make over and over again, relies less on a recipe and more on method and what you have on hand. Since I am flush in produce, the only things I needed to grab were the steak and baguette. This is such a forgiving dish, you wouldn't even need to marinate the steak. If using grass fed flank steak, a little dip in a tenderizing bath will certainly benefit the beef, though. Lucky for me, I am able to purchase frozen beef from the wonderful Fox Hollow Farm here in Kentucky and it is so very good. Support your local farms! Use what you have. Pork, sausages or lamb would be great, too. For vegetarians a heap of grilled veggies or mushrooms, burrata or feta or just leave the beef off (depending on your bread, it could be vegan this way). The real star, I believe, are the long roasted tomatoes. But first: marinade!