bruschetta is toasted bread with a topping and comes from central Italy—Lazio, Tuscany, and Umbria. It is sometimes known as fett’unta. The word bruschetta means ‘toasted over coals’. At its simplest, in Tuscany, it is soaked in new season’s olive oil. Or it may be rubbed with garlic and sprinkled with salt. As Italian cookery has spread through the world, especially in restaurants, so the art of the bruschetta has taken myriad forms. It is cognate with the Catalan pa amb tomaquet. It is also the source of British and American garlic bread.
