More Brunch Recipes
Bresaola, Goat’s Cheese and Pickled Red Onion Bruschetta
This bresaola, goats cheese and pickled red onion bruschetta is the kind of starter that looks like you've gone to a lot of trouble when really it comes together in minutes. Thinly sliced bresaola, creamy tangy goats cheese and sharp pickled red onion piled onto crisp, garlicky toasted bread. It's the perfect combination of flavour and texture and it absolutely never fails to impress. Save this one for your next dinner party or whenever you need a beautiful bite that requires almost no cooking.
Ingredients
- 4 slices sourdough or ciabatta
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 80g bresaola
- 160g soft goat's cheese, marinated or plain
- 3/4 cup sweet pickled red onions
Instructions
- Toast or grill each slice of bread on both sides until golden and crisp. Drizzle with a small amount of extra virgin olive oil while still warm.
- Spread or crumble the goat's cheese evenly across each slice.
- Top with the bresaola and sweet red pickled onions.
- Serve immediately while the bread is still warm.
Notes
- For the best results, use a ridged griddle pan to toast the bread rather than a toaster. It gives you those lovely char marks and keeps the texture just right.
- Bresaola is more delicate than prosciutto, so the amount of pickled onions matters. Too much and you'll bury the subtle flavour of the meat. If you prefer a stronger pickle presence, prosciutto holds up better.
- The pickled onions can be made several days in advance and kept in the fridge. A quick pickle with red wine vinegar, sugar, and a pinch of salt works beautifully. You can find my recipe for sweet pickled red onions here.
- If marinated goat's cheese isn't available, plain soft goat's cheese works just as well. You could also use a creamy feta.
- This makes a brilliant starter for a dinner party or a light lunch served with a simple green salad.
- For extra flavour, rub a cut garlic clove over the toasted bread before drizzling with olive oil.
- A crack of black pepper over the top just before serving adds a nice finishing touch.
- This bruschetta is best eaten fresh while the bread is still warm and crisp. Leftovers don't store well as the bread will soften and the toppings will wilt.
- Not suitable for freezing.
What I Cook With
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 351Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 8gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 40mgSodium: 1312mgCarbohydrates: 39gFiber: 2gSugar: 5gProtein: 17g
Please note, this nutrition information is to be used as a guide only. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.
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Bresaola, Goat’s Cheese and Pickled Red Onion Bruschetta (The Hangover Cure You Deserve)
This bresaola, goat’s cheese and pickled red onion bruschetta is what happens when a hangover meets high standards. Thick bread, extra virgin olive oil, marinated goat’s cheese, sweet pickled red onions, and silky bresaola. Carbs and protein, done with absolutely no compromise.
Sunday, Slightly Compromised
It’s Sunday. I’m slightly hungover and extremely tired. A friend dropped by late last night and very little sleep was had. When I woke up this morning I knew two things with complete certainty: I needed carbs, I needed protein, and I was not going to do it boringly. That’s three things, but the hangover is affecting my maths.
I originally made this a couple of months ago when a friend came over and I put together a massive bruschetta spread, the kind where the table disappears under boards and small plates and you lose track of what you’re eating because everything is too good to stop. The moment I ate this particular combination I knew it had to end up here. Bresaola and goat’s cheese is one of those pairings that sounds simple but tastes genuinely considered, and the pickled red onions cut through the richness of both in a way that makes the whole thing sing.
It’s a grey day in Brisbane today, which honestly suits my current state perfectly. The kind of flat, overcast Sunday that asks nothing of you except that you eat something good and stay horizontal as much as possible. This bruschetta is doing its job.
A Note on Gluten Free Bread (Because It Matters)
As most of you know, I’m coeliac, and finding a genuinely good gluten free bread for bruschetta is not as simple as it sounds. It needs to be thick enough to toast properly, sturdy enough to hold up under toppings, and actually taste like something rather than dissolving into a vaguely bread-adjacent disappointment. The gluten free bread market has improved enormously over the years, but bruschetta is a specific ask, and not everything is up to it.
Schar does a Pane Casereccio that is excellent for this kind of thing, but it’s difficult to find, eleven dollars for five slices, and it contains soy flour, which I’m also allergic to. So that’s a no on multiple counts, which is genuinely annoying because it is a very good loaf. Being coeliac with an additional soy allergy narrows the field considerably, and I’ve had more than a few kitchen moments of checking a label and quietly sighing.
Instead I use Warburtons Gluten Free Tiger Loaf, which is imported from the UK and thankfully available at Coles. It toasts beautifully, holds up under the toppings without going soggy, and doesn’t have that slightly gummy texture that lets down so many gluten free breads. It’s become my reliable go-to, and on a hungover Sunday when I needed this bruschetta to actually work, it delivered. If you’re not coeliac and the world is your sourdough oyster, a good thick slice of something substantial will do the job wonderfully.
On Floating, Hustle Culture, and Knowing What You’re Good At
I posted my slow roasted tomato pasta on Friday, so I don’t have a great deal to report on today. Life is just doing its thing, and I’ve found myself floating along with it rather than fighting the current, which is newer than it sounds. There was a version of me not so long ago who would have found that deeply uncomfortable, who needed a plan, a goal, a five year trajectory mapped out in a journal somewhere. That version of me was exhausting to be.
I used to be ambitious and driven in a way that didn’t always serve me. I bought hard into hustle culture for a few years as a way to distract myself and survive my marriage, and for a while it worked, in the sense that it kept me occupied enough not to sit with anything too difficult. But you can only outrun yourself for so long. Somewhere in Adelaide, amid everything that happened there, I learned how to be still. How to let things unfold without forcing them. It took a long time for my nervous system to feel safe enough to just exist without the noise, and I’m still grateful every day that it does now.
I’m a Taurus, and we are genuinely the chillest sign in the zodiac, until we’re absolutely not. I’m 42 and I definitely don’t have my life together in the way I imagined I would at this age. But I’ve made my peace with that, mostly. Life looks different to what I planned, and it turns out that’s completely fine. And on a grey hungover Sunday, without a date and without a plan, there are two things I will never lose my confidence in: my absolutely exceptional shoe collection, and just how fan-fucking-tastic my cooking is.
What is Bresaola?
Bresaola is an Italian cured meat, originating from the Lombardy region in northern Italy, and if you haven’t encountered it before, consider this your introduction to something wonderful. Unlike salami or prosciutto, bresaola is made from whole beef topside that’s been cured with salt and spices, then air-dried for several weeks until it develops a deep, concentrated flavour. It’s lean, silky, and a beautiful dark ruby red when sliced thinly.
The flavour is delicate compared to other cured meats, mildly salty with a subtle earthiness, which makes it incredibly versatile. It’s traditionally served as part of an antipasto spread with a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, and some rocket, which tells you immediately why it works so well here. It plays nicely with others rather than dominating everything around it.
You’ll find bresaola at most good delis and at the deli counter of larger supermarkets. It’s usually sold pre-sliced and vacuumed packed, and a little goes a long way. If you’ve never tried it, this bruschetta is honestly one of the best possible introductions.
Ingredient breakdown
Sourdough or ciabatta
The bread is the foundation of the whole thing and it needs to be substantial enough to hold the toppings without going soggy the second the goat’s cheese hits it. Sourdough and ciabatta are both good choices for different reasons. Sourdough has a tighter crumb and a slight tang that works really well with the pickled onions and bresaola. Ciabatta is airier and crisps up beautifully on a griddle pan. Either way, cut it thick. Thin slices will just shatter when you try to eat them. Toast or grill both sides until properly golden and crisp, drizzle with olive oil while it’s still warm so it absorbs slightly, and serve immediately before the bread starts to soften under the toppings.
Extra virgin olive oil
A drizzle over the warm toasted bread before anything else goes on it, which is the step that elevates this from toast with toppings to actual bruschetta. Use a good quality extra virgin here because it’s front and centre and you will taste it. This is not the moment for the cheap bottle you cook with. For extra flavour, rub a cut garlic clove over the surface of the bread before the olive oil goes on, which leaves a faint, fragrant garlic note without any of the sharpness of raw garlic sitting directly on the bread.
Bresaola
Bresaola is air-dried, salt-cured beef, typically from the top round, and it has a delicate, slightly mineral flavour that is quite different from the more assertive cured meats like prosciutto or salami. That delicacy is exactly why the balance of toppings matters here. Too many pickled onions and you’ll completely bury the bresaola under acidity and sweetness. It’s a more subtle cured meat than most people are used to working with, which makes it worth seeking out rather than substituting, though prosciutto holds up better if you prefer a stronger pickle presence.
Soft goat’s cheese
Soft goat’s cheese, either marinated in olive oil and herbs or plain, spread or crumbled generously across each slice before the bresaola goes on top. Marinated goat’s cheese adds an extra layer of flavour from the herbs and oil it’s been sitting in, and is worth grabbing if your deli has it. Plain soft goat’s cheese works just as well. The creaminess of the cheese is what ties all the toppings together and provides a soft contrast to the crisp bread and chewy bresaola. Creamy feta is a reasonable substitute if goat’s cheese isn’t available.
Sweet pickled red onions
The pickled onions are what makes this bruschetta. They cut through the richness of the goat’s cheese, brighten the delicate flavour of the bresaola, and add a pop of colour that makes the whole thing look as good as it tastes. Sweet pickled red onions are quick to make at home with red wine vinegar, sugar, and salt, and they keep in the fridge for several days, which makes them well worth having around for more than just this recipe. The key word is sweet. You want a pickle with enough sugar to balance the acidity rather than something aggressively sharp that overpowers everything else on the bruschetta.
Serve this with
- A glass of crisp white wine or prosecco, because that’s just the right call here.
- A simple rocket and Parmesan salad with a sharp lemon dressing to cut through the richness of the goat’s cheese.
- Marinated olives and assorted antipasti to turn this into a proper spread.
