Crostini and bruschetta

[JAZ]

The other day someone asked me the difference between crostini and bruschetta, and I realized that I don't know what it is.

I've been told that it's a matter of size -- that crostini are smaller, bruschetta are larger. But I've also heard that with bruschetta, the bread is grilled, while crostini are toasted.

Can anyone give me the real story?

[scubadoo97]

A quick check yielded these two definitions.

Bruschetta

Definition: From the Italian word 'bruscare' meaning ‘to roast over coals‘. The thin slices of bread are usually grilled, rubbed with garlic, then drizzled with olive oil and served warm.

Crostini

Definition: This Italian word means ‘little toasts‘. The thin slices of bread are toasted, drizzled with olive oil, and served warm. They may be topped with a savory, finely diced mixture such as cheese, vegetables, meat or seafood.

[slkinsey]

Janet, that sounds more or less right (except that it's one crostino, two crostini). The size difference is usually quite a bit, and size is important in this case (the -ino ending connotes small size). I'm not sure one could grill a crostino-sized piece of bread without having it fall into the fire. I also believe they come from different culinary traditions within Italy, and therefore have different traditional treatments and adornments. Bruschetta are most often made of slices from a relatively large, rustic "peasant bread" and rubbed with garlic after they are grilled. Crostini are more often made from more refined "baguette-style" bread, and don't typically get a rubbing of garlic. One is also much more likely to see things like liver pate and black truffles on crostini, whereas bruschette are more often topped with more rustic preparations.

I wonder why, in America, we have come to know crostini by the plural form and bruschetta by the singular form?

Of course, the real answer is that crostini and bruschette are simply names for more or less the same thing (toasted/grilled bread) that came up in different areas of Italy. Italy is full of different names for the same thing. I can remember a friend of mine in Le Marche explaining about a certain flatbread that is common in central Italy: "over in that town they call it piadina, but in such-and-such town it's cresce -- we call it crostolo." For example, another Italian toasted bread name is fett'unta meaning "greasy slice" (fetta = "slice"; unta = "greasy").

So, to a certain extent, this question may be asking the difference between a hero and a grinder and a submarine and a hoagie. One can make generalities, such as "they tend to be like this in the area where they're called hoagies and they tend to be this other way in the area where they're called grinders." But, fundamentally they're all names for the same thing.

[snowangel]

So, really, these terms refer to the grilled or toasted item(s) and not what's put on top of them, right? If so, a menu should reat crostini topped with whatever, not just crostini?? Unless the crostini is served with no toppings?

[slkinsey]

Yea. They're names for the bread. For some reason, America has come to know bruschetta (most often mispronounced as broo-shet-uh) as chopped tomato and basil. I've even seen jars of "bruschetta."

You could certainly say what the crostini, bruschette, etc. are topped with. It's not unusual to see descriptions such as crostini di fegato or bruschetta con funghi.

[Pan]

It's possible that my memory is failing, but I can't imagine crostini that aren't topped with anything. As I understand it, the whole point of a crostino is that it's toasted and has a topping. But yeah, menus should really specify things like "crostini di fegato," etc.

[Maureen B. Fant]

The question has certainly been answered, but I'll add my two cents anyway. The terminology is a bit inexact even in Italy. It’s department of “I know it when I see it.” In any case, here is how I’ve observed the terms used in Rome.

Bruschetta is a generous slice of toasted (grill, toaster, or whatever you have) pane casereccio (i.e. rough-textured bread) rubbed vigorously with a peeled garlic clove and sloshed with olive oil. If you omit the garlic, it's still a bruschetta, as it is if you add additional toppings, which are almost always diced tomatoes, though a slice of prosciutto makes a nice bruschetta too. NB the bread has to be rough enough to grate the garlic. It's not like rubbing the inside of a salad bowl. The Tuscan fettunta is approximately the same thing, though the bread can also be fried in the oil. As has been noted, the c has a k sound.

A crostino can be one of at least two things. One is the Tuscan-Umbrian toast with a topping (sometimes but not always smaller format than bruschetta), often black truffle paste, olive paste, or pâté of liver and/or spleen. Or diced tomatoes, or just olive oil. Or any of those things in jars one tends to get in Christmas baskets (asparagus paste, artichoke paste, funghi porcini). These are often used with bruschetta too. Crostini usually come three or four to a plate of “crostini misti.” The restaurant Checchino serves crostini with slices of guanciale (yum) and with melted pecorino romano (also yum).

The other kind of crostino is the kind you get in Roman pizzerias. It’s several slices of bread -- a smaller, softer bread than casereccio – arranged on a longish plate and topped with anchovies or prosciutto and cheese. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen these in a while, but they were always offered as an alternative to pizza.

Then, of course, there’s the crostone, or croûton, toast or dried bread that you put in the soup bowl. Though the suffix implies that they’re large, I believe there is no official size.

And one last suffix: the crostata, which is a tart made from an overwhelming crust of pasta frolla (short pastry) covered with fruit or, more usually, fruit jam or preserves.