Panzanella is a type of Italian salad that combines stale bread with ripe tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil. It's a salad that's designed to use up ingredients you already have on hand to avoid food waste. Much like putting croutons in your Caesar salad.
Free from dairy, nuts, peanuts, soy, egg, mustard, oats, fish, shellfish, citrus, sesame.
Vegan
Ingredients
2 cups bread chunks (here's my bread recipe)
2 tbsp olive oil + 1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups vine, beefsteak, or heirloom tomatoes
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
handful of basil
Method
Cut up day-old bread into 1-inch chunks and spread them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper/ Drizzle with 2 tbsp. of good olive oil and season with salt to taste. Place in a preheated 375F oven and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes, or until they've reached your desired level of toastiness. I like to toast them low and slow like this so that they dry out as opposed to just getting charred on the outside.It gives a better texture to the salad and allows the bread to soak up more tomato flavor!
Roughly chop up the tomatoes, finely dice the garlic, and tear the basil. Add it all to a large mixing bowl, then add the crunchy croutons. Dress with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and salt to taste. Mix well and serve immediately. No one likes soggy bread :)
serves 8
