Burnt Tomato, Goat Cheese, & Anchovy Bruschetta

Course
Servings 8
Description
If I had to pick one favorite appetizer, (I'm glad I don't) this would be it. It is the most perfect mouthful you can imagine, at once salty, sweet, creamy, crunchy and juicy.

Noted on 1/29/2012

Ingredients
  • 36 cherry tomatoes (about a pound)
  • 1/2 cup fresh oregano leaves, roughly chopped
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 day-old baguette (10 ounces) sliced into twenty-four 1/2-inch-thick rounds, lightly toasted (from cooking the chicken)
  • 8 oz mild goat cheese
  • 24 anchovy fillets (about 3 1/2 ounces), drained and halved lengthwise
  • Parsley, Olive Oil and Garlic Sauce (see Cook's Notes)
Method
  1. Cut the tomatoes in half and put them in a bowl. Add the oregano, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to combine.
  2. Heat a chapa or large cast-iron griddle over very high heat. When it is very hot, place the cherry tomato halves cut side down about 1 inch apart on the hot surface; work in batches if necessary. When you see that the tomatoes are well charred on the bottom, almost entirely black (about 4 minutes), remove them using tongs or a spatula and place burnt side up on a large tray, about an inch apart so they don't steam.
  3. Arrange the toasted bread rounds on a platter. Spread some of the goat cheese on each round and place 3 tomato halves on top of the cheese. Garnish with the anchovies, drizzle a little of the sauce on top and serve.
Cook's Notes
Find the recipe for Parsley, Olive and Garlic Sauce here. This sauce was a real revelation. So simple and so yummy. It's very good on grilled red meat.
Don't touch the tomatoes while they cook or they will turn into mush. It is very hard to over-char the tomatoes. If you move a tomato, you are committed to removing it from the cooking surface.
Ingredient Notes
Cherry tomatoes work just fine in this recipe, but I prefer slightly larger tomatoes, about the size of golf balls. You will only need 24 tomatoes this size, 2 halves per toast.
Special Equipment
A chappa is a flat piece of cast iron set over a fire. We use a large cast-iron griddle set over an outdoor fire. You could use a cast-iron skillet placed over a barbecue grate, which is in turn placed over a wood, charcoal, or gas fire, or even a very hot stove-top burner.
Source/Adapted From
I highly recommend this cookbook. Seven Fires Grilling the Argentine Way by Francis Mallman