This panzanella salad is the ultimate Italian summer meal.
Loaded with juicy tomatoes, crunchy onions and cucumbers, this bread salad gets
its wonderful flavors from simple, high-quality ingredients.
Ingredients:
- 8 oz stale crusty artisan bread - cut into cubes
- 1 lb cherry tomatoes - cut into quarters or halves
- 1 medium red onion - quartered and sliced thin
- 1 English cucumber - peeled, halved and sliced
- 1 bunch basil leaves - hand shredded
- extra virgin olive oil
- red wine vinegar - as needed
- salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
Mix two parts of water and one part of vinegar enough to
soak bread in a large bowl. Add bread into the bowl with vinegar mixture and
immerse it well so it can soak while you’re preparing the veggies.
Once you have all vegetables cut and ready in a large bowl,
squeeze the bread to remove excess of moisture, and then crumble it into the
bowl with veggies.
Season with salt and pepper, then add a generous glug of
extra virgin olive oil and lots of hand-torn basil. Mix well to combine
everything. Cover and allow to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes
before serving.
Notes:
If you using fresh bread, I suggest to slicing it and leave
it in the countertop covered with a kitchen towel overnight, so it will stale
and be ready next day or you can pop it in the oven for a couple of minutes to
dry it a bit.
Allow panzanella salad to rest overnight, the flavors will infuse bread resulting in a more flavored dish.
Blessed be… and happy cooking!