The easy and seasonal recipe by Molly Baz, former food editor and Rhinebeck native, features a unique take on bruschetta that’s simple to prepare.
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Chef and food writer Molly Baz has fine-tuned having fun in the kitchen. After a five-year stint as a food editor and video host at Bon Appétit, the Rhinebeck native began developing her own recipes full-time. In 2021, she released her first cookbook, Cook This Book, to much acclaim and earned a spot on the New York Times bestseller list. This fall, she’s back with More is More: Get Loose in the Kitchen, another inventive, full-of-personality cookbook packed with easy, flavorful, and yes fun, recipes.

If you’re like me, you may associate bruschetta with watery, flavorless versions passed around a party. What if we made bruschetta with only the plumpest, juiciest, sweetest summer tomatoes? Here we’re using Sungold tomatoes at the peak of their late-summer ripeness, spooned over a tangy swoosh of cottage cheese. Fried garlic chips and basil top it off, and suddenly it’s the bruschetta we deserved all along.
Bring Back Bruschetta
Recipe by Molly Baz4
servingsIngredients
- Produce
4 garlic cloves
¾ pound Sungold or cherry tomatoes
1 small bunch of basil and/or chives
- Dairy
½ cup full-fat cottage cheese
- Pantry
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Any grape-based vinegar, such as red, white, balsamic, or sherry
Sugar
Red pepper flakes
2 (1-inch-thick) crusty, sturdy bread slices
Directions
- Fry the Garlic
- Thinly slice 3 garlic cloves.
- Line a plate with paper towels.
- In a large nonstick skillet, combine the sliced garlic with several glugs of olive oil—the garlic should be swimming in a shallow pool of it—and set it over medium heat. Cook, stirring to separate the slices, until just lightly golden brown (watch closely, they burn very easily), 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to the paper-towel-lined plate with a slotted spoon to drain. Season lightly with salt. Don’t discard the oil in the skillet! We’ll get into that shortly.
- Marinate the Tomatoes
- Cut ¾ pound Sungold tomatoes in half. Toss in a medium bowl with a splash of vinegar, a few big glugs of olive oil, a big pinch each of salt and sugar, and some red pepper flakes to taste. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking.
- Chop or tear 1 small bunch of basil and toss through the tomatoes.
- Fry the Bread
- Place 2 (1-inch-thick) crusty bread slices in the garlic oil remaining in the skillet and set over medium heat. Cook until deeply golden brown and fried to a crisp on both sides, flipping once, about 6 minutes total.
- Transfer the toasts to a cutting board and rub all over with the remaining whole garlic clove—the craggy nature of the bread will act as an abrasive to grate the garlic. Season with salt.
- Assemble
- Cut each toast in half. Spoon some of the tomato juices over the toasts.
- Schmear a big spoonful of cottage cheese on each toast. Spoon the tomatoes over the top and garnish with the fried garlic and a drizzle of olive oil.
Related: Asparagus Bruschetta Extravaganza