Panzanella Salad Recipe
It’s tomato season, and my garden is overflowing with tomatoes. It’s the point in the season where I tend to start getting creative with my uses for tomato. In between rainstorms this afternoon, I picked about three-dozen sweet baby girls. These sweet as candy tomatoes are best used in salads. Since I also happened to have a half loaf of rustic multi-grain Italian bread that my parents picked up at the farmers market for me the other day, I decided a Panzanella salad was in order.
Panzanella salad is a staple summer salad in the Tuscany region of Italy (so I’m told). It is often referred to as bread salad, or leftover salad. The thing that I love about this salad is there are no rules. In fact, I’ve never followed a recipe. Since I’m such a big fan of the Panzanella salad I thought I would share my foundation of a recipe, so that you too can enjoy this most summery of salads. This is merely a guide. Have fun, and let me know how yours comes out…
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 pounds of diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup roughly chopped Kalamata olives
- 1 clove of garlic, mashed and finely chopped
- 1/2 small scallion bulb, or 2 tablespoons small onion, diced
- 1 freshly squeezed lemon (i.e. 1/4 cup, fresh lemon juice)
- 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup of roughly chopped, or torn fresh basil
- 4-5 slices of day old rustic Italian bread, chopped or torn into 1/2” cubes
- 1/2 cup of parmigiano reggiano, cut into 1/4” cubes
- Salt and pepper to taste
Start with a good amount of your favorite home grown tomatoes. If home grown aren’t available, I suppose farmers market, or CSA tomatoes will do. Just don’t try this salad in the winter with crappy supermarket tomatoes.
Add to the diced tomatoes to the roughly chopped Kalamata olives, garlic, scallion and bread. After stirring to allow the bread to soak in some of the juice, add the olive oil and lemon juice and give another good stir. To this add the basil and cheese. Give a stir then taste. Add salt and pepper to taste. I highly recommend you let the salad stand in the refrigerator for a good half hour before serving.
Enjoy!
