We had bruschetta for lunch recently on a sunny Sunday. Such a sunny Sunday, in fact, that most of my photos are a bit overexposed! But they give you an idea of what a nice day it was.

I love bruschetta for a weekend lunch; it feels Italian-y and a bit special (depending on what ingredients you use), but is actually really easy. At its core, it’s fancy tomatoes on toast.

Annabel Langbein’s Great Food for Busy Lives has a recipe for mushroom bruschetta topping, which I borrowed for this lunch. And the nice thing about bruschetta, like pizza, is that you can use up ingredients lurking in the fridge.

Note – I’ve updated this part of the post, after some tips from Alessandra Zecchini on the best authentic bread for bruschetta. I had read a bunch of recipes suggesting ciabatta, but as Alessandra notes, a Tuscan-style compact loaf is best. I am happy to be put right as I had used a good dense grainy bread (I think it was McKenzie country stuff). My original choice would have been our homemade sourdough (the starter is still going well, by the way), and I can now confirm that would also be a suitable choice. Thanks, Alessandra!

Mushroom & Artichoke Bruschetta (adapted from an Annabel Langbein recipe)

olive oil
as many slices of ciabatta as you need
1 tsp sesame oil
about 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1-2 Tbsp unsweeted greek yoghurt
squeeze lemon juice
1 Tbsp chopped Italian parsley
spready options – harissa paste, tahini paste, or olive tapenade
cherry tomatoes, halved
canned artichoke halves, drained and chopped (optional)
extra Italian parsley, to garnish

Preheat the grill. Brush the bread with olive oil (if you want to keep things a little healther, I actually sprayed my bread with olive oil spray), and grill it lightly, just until it’s beginning to toast. Once it’s done, take the bread out and turn the oven to bake function, at 180°.

Heat the sesame oil in a frypan, and cook the mushrooms and garlic until the mushrooms have softened and reached that delicious-smelling, melty stage. Mix them with the yoghurt (you could also use mayonnaise), using just enough to bind the mixture and make it spreadable. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and the parsley.

You don’t need to spread anything on the bruschetta before adding the mushroom topping, but I used a little tahini paste on some, and a little of my harissa paste on others (tip: spread very thinly, that stuff can be quite hot!). If you have it on hand, try a black olive tapenade.

Spread the mushroom mixture over the bruschetta, and top with artichoke hearts and cherry tomato halves. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the bruschetta are starting to crisp at the edges.