Bruschetta Topper

A quick tomato salad topper for crostini is one of our favorite snack treats during the holidays.  It's quick, easy and delicious.

You'll need some scallions, tomato, garlic, olive oil, salt & pepper.

Just cut the scallions in half lengthwise.

Then chop them up into a little smaller than 1/4-inch pieces.

Keep chopping - all the way from the white part up through the green.

Toss them into a bowl.

Add a heaping teaspoon of minced garlic into the bowl.

Cut the tomato in half.  I'm using plum tomatoes - a lot of meat, not a lot of seeds and they're ripe and readily available this time of year at my local grocery store.

Cut the halves in half - you know, quarters.

Cut the quarters in half --- eighths.

Cut the eighths in half - sixteenths!  It helps if you have a really sharp knife, by the way, otherwise it might slip off of the tomato skin and slice your finger open - or worse, just smash the tomato instead of cutting it.

Now dice up the tomato - a little smaller than 1/4-inch pieces, just like the scallions.

Chop, chop, chop - and save the juices!

Toss the tomatoes with the juices into the bowl.

Sprinkle on about a 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.

Grind on some fresh black pepper - about 1/4 teaspoon.

Give it a nice toss.

So all of the bits are mixed together nicely.

Drizzle in some olive oil - about 1/8th of a cup (3 Tablespoons).

Mix it all up.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight, or set it out on the counter if you'll be eating in an hour or so.  Just give it time for the salt to draw out some of the tomato juice and the olive oil to mingle in with the garlic and juice.

Of course, it's important to taste it and make sure you got it right!  Yum!