They may not be worth the effort, but making bruschetta using molecular gastronomy is very interesting.
It started with some small rounds cut out of a baguette which were toasted with butter in a cast iron pan. The light colored pearls are the tomato. The darkest ones are balsamic vinegar and the green ones on top are basil.
The pearls were all made using Agar Agar over the span of two days. It’s not a super complicated process but it is time consuming. Plus they make for some pretty neat pictures.
To make the tomato pearls I blanched some roma tomatoes to make it easier to peel. They got diced with some garlic and red onions then thrown into a blender. Some salt pepper and red chilis were added for extra flavour. I let this sit in the fridge overnight.
The basil was a bit easier, it’s just basil, a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of water. Again blended and left to sit in the fridge overnight.
The balsamic pearls were the easiest since they were just straight balsamic.
The process for making the pearls started with filtering the tomato and basil mixtures through some cheese cloth. Now that I had 3 liquids, they were ready to be turned into the pearls. To each mixture I added the Agar Agar and brought them just about up to a boil. Once heated, using a pipet, they were dropped into a chilled vessel of oil. As they cool the Agar Agar congeals to make the pearls before they get to the bottom of the oil.
In the end they taste the same as a regular bruschetta. They aren’t really worth making at home unless you’re trying to be fancy. They were very fascinating to make though!
