We haven’t rented a house for a week down the Jersey Shore for 19 years. We used to rent a home on Long Beach Island, NJ, right in Surf City every July. My parents went in 50% for the rental cost, making it affordable for us since I was a stay-at-home mom. We would all stay at the house and, because my father was still alive, we all got along. They didn’t like the beach, and we did, so we parted our separate ways during the day. At night, we would have cocktails and dinner together. Then we would sit outside for hours after the boys went to bed.
We didn’t rent a place in 2000 since my dad passed away in April and I was pregnant with Sam; I was due in August. We did scrounge money together to rent the house again the following year. I was working for a caterer part-time and put a little money aside every week all year. Our spending money came from our income tax return.
We had a great time at LBI that summer, even though all of our hearts had a hole in them without my father. He did let his presence be known that he was with us anyway. He was so much fun in life, and the signs we got from him made us all laugh.
We never ate out the years we rented the house, the kids were young, and we really didn’t want to spend a ton of money on going out. It would have been aggravating anyway since everywhere was jammed with families; the wait to get into most places was ridiculous. It was more enjoyable eating on one of the house’s decks; the kids could play after they ate and not have to sit still so and we could enjoy our food. Our kids were never allowed to get up from the table in a restaurant or bother a bunch of other diners.
We brought groceries from home mostly for the kids, and we shopped each day at the corner store, butcher shop, bakery (we weren’t gluten-free then), seafood market, and pizza places. I loved to cook back then, and the kitchen was fully equipped, along with a nice grill.
One morning when Marty and I walked to the bakery searching for the pretzel rolls we loved, we saw they had a bruschetta topped pizza crust. It was different than regular pizza. It was pizza dough baked in Sicilian style and was topped with olive oil, bruschetta topping, and pecorino Romano cheese. It was to be eaten at room temp. It was so good! I think we got it twice that week. I didn’t think I wouldn’t be able to find it anywhere again. It was so juicy and flavorful.
That was the last year we could afford the house we rented for years. We were priced out by all the New Yorkers that flooded LBI, and the rent tripled in price. We were saving to buy a house and didn’t want to spend that much money; it was the end of going down the shore. Hotels near the beach were even further out of our price range. ☹️
Before we had to go gluten-free, I would look on the menu of every pizzeria to try to find that bruschetta pizza, but I never saw anything like we had from the bakery. I never bothered trying to duplicate the bruschetta pie since gluten-free pizza crust sucks. It took us 9 years to finally master a good pizza dough, so I decided to try tonight.
I made a batch of pizza dough and rolled out one of the dough balls; I put it immediately on a sheet pan. I let it rise, covered with a towel. Meanwhile, I made the bruschetta topping and garlic herb oil to put on the dough while it baked.
After I made the bruschetta topping, I let it sit for a bit, then tasted it. Boom! It tasted just like the topping I remembered. I was halfway there. When the dough was ready to bake, I poured the garlic, herb, olive oil on the dough, sprinkled a little Parmesan on it, and threw it in the oven.
When the pizza crust was done, I immediately topped it with the bruschetta topping and grated some pecorino Romano cheese on top. I let it sit for a few minutes so everything could come together.
I cut it into squares just like the bakery did. Marty tasted it first and said, “You’re gonna love it.” I did love it. We both agreed that it tasted just like the one from the LBI bakery. Marty said he could see us having this a lot, especially when tomatoes are in season.
It was a perfect meal to have on the first day of summer. This bruschetta-topped pizza crust will always remind me of that summer at LBI. We really miss going down the shore for a week and the little house that was just a couple of short blocks from the beach.
I have lots of photos of the little beach house and LBI….I just have to find them.
Recipe for the bruschetta, please. We just ordered Bruschetta at an “Italian” restaurant. It came out as chopped tomatoes on a warm sub roll. Yuck!