The basics of a beautiful bruschetta

Bruschetta doesn’t really need a recipe, but it does require the best ingredients you can find. First of all, a crusty loaf of bread with some texture and holes to it. My favorite is the country loaf from the original La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles. Day-old is perfect. After all, this — and many other Tuscan dishes — came about as a way to use up old bread.

Then you need some plump fresh garlic cloves and a bottle of either olio nuovo (new oil, a good one is available from Rare Wine Co. in Sonoma starting the first week of December) or a top extra virgin olive oil from Tuscany, Umbria or Spain (see sources below). I’m just finishing a bottle of estate-bottled Merula EVOO from Spain made from Arbequina olives. Just please don’t pull out that bottle that’s been languishing at the back of your cupboard for five years.

• Cut the bread at least an inch thick. (At the salumi bar at Mozza’s Scuola di Pizza, their fett’unta is 2 inches thick and toasted over the wood-fired grill.)

• Toast the bread until it’s slightly burnt at the edges. (If your toaster won’t accept thick slices, do it in a toaster oven or the broiler; if you’re cooking for a crowd, you can bake several slices on a cookie sheet in a 400-degree oven.)

• For each slice, rub half a clove of garlic over the toast until it disappears into the bread.

• Place the toasted bread on a plate, and pour olive oil over until it soaks into the bread and pools. Be generous. Don’t stint. Add a pinch of salt if you like. If you’re left with a pool of olive oil, not to worry. Sop it up with a piece of bread or save it for the next day’s salad dressing.

Where to find olio nuovo:

Rare Wine Co. olive oils, https://www.rarewineco.com. Shipment of new oils generally starts the first week of December. By spring, they’ll have about a dozen 2012 olive oils from Tuscany.

Other good sources for high-quality Italian olive oils: Cube Marketplace, 615 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 939-1148, https://www.cubemarketplace.com; Guidi Marcello, 1649 10th St., Santa Monica, (310) 452-6277, https://www.guidimarcello.com.

Most serious wine shops also stock a handful of good oils from their Italian wine producers.

irene.virbila@latimes.com