Panzanella

April 28, 2008

Before you throw away that stale hunk of bread chop it up and make yourself a beautiful panzanella. Originating from Tuscany, panzanella is a summer salad of tomatoes and bread. It's also referred to as "leftover salad" as you can toss in whatever ingredients you have remaining in your fridge: basil, lettuce, carrots, capers, hard boiled eggs, cucumbers, you name it.

Our easy and delicious panzanella included the following:

Mixed greens
Hearts of baby romaine
Red bell peppers, finely chopped
Fresh basil, finely chopped
Red onion, diced
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Pugliese (an Italian bread)
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

We brushed slices of pugliese with olive oil and placed them on the grill for a nice toasting. Then we cut them up into about 1 inch pieces, added them to the chopped veggies, and tossed it all with a good olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Molto bene!

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Comments

Greg Bulmash's picture

Looks like you also did some chicken skewers on the grill based on the food in the background. Panzanella and yakitori?

Barnaby Dorfman's picture

Actually, marinated the chicken in a bit of pesto and minced sundried tomatoes. Saturday was warm and the whole meal felt a bit like summer in Italy!

Dolores Dolan's picture

Both of these dishes look devine ...