I sacrificed my garden this year due to the drought and now I need to obtain summer tomatoes either at a farmers market or from someone I know. I was very fortunate when my dad gifted me with a few tomatoes he grew. For this week’s recipe, I share how I used the tomatoes along with making use of
stale bread.
While tomatoes are in season, I eat them as much as possible. This is the only time of year I will have BLT sandwiches, fresh quick cooked pasta sauce, tomato salads and one of my favorites: tomato sandwiches on toasted whole grain bread with an abundant quantity of mayonnaise. However, these dishes can become a little repetitive. This led me to the rediscovery of a wonderful tomato salad with bread called panzanella.
I thought
back to my grandmother’s stories of how everything was put to use and nothing thrown away. In the case of bread, if it was not used for bread crumbs, it was used to make panzanella during the tomato season. The thing I like most about panzanella is that during the hotter summer months, it can make a wonderful lunch just on its own. Not only is it absolutely delicious, is a very cooling, refreshing and filling salad.
There are, however, two things that can ruin panzanella: tomato skin and awful bread.
Tomato skin can be tough, so I peel them. You can do it by hand, but I like the blanching method—especially if I am peeling more than two tomatoes. This is a relatively easy process and a great tip: Cut a shallow “x” mark in the bottom of the tomato, drop it into boiling water for about 30 to 40 seconds and immediately submerge it into an ice water bath to stop the cooking process. The tomato skin will
easily peel away.
Good quality bread is essential for good panzanella because it is the essence of the whole salad. Do not use regular sandwich bread or a bread with a very soft interior because it will become mush when tossed with the wonderful juices of the salad. An artisanal bread with a firmer interior crumb, such as ciabatta, pugliese or similar bread is perfect for this purpose. When these breads absorb the juices of the salad, their structure remains intact.
Panzanella
Serves 4
Ingredients
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
3 large tomatoes, peeled
1/2 large cucumber
1/2 red onion
2 to 3 cups stale bread, 1 inch cubes
10 large basil leaves, plus more for garnish
Step 1: In a large bowl, mix together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, black pepper and salt. Cut the peeled tomatoes at the equator. Place a mesh strainer over a bowl and squeeze the seeds from the tomatoes. Press the contents through the mesh strainer, add the tomato juices to the olive oil and vinegar mixture and discard the contents of the strainer. Rough chop the tomatoes into a 1-inch dice and place them in the bowl with the liquid mixture.
Step 2: Peel the cucumber half and slice lengthwise into quarters, then using a spoon, remove the seeds. Cut the cucumber into 1/2 inch wide slices and add to the large bowl. Peel the half of red onion and cut in half again. Slice the onion very thinly and add to the large bowl. Toss the contents of the bowl and refrigerate for one to two hours to chill.
Step 3: Ten minutes before serving, add the stale bread to the contents of the large bowl and toss, let it sit for five minutes and toss again. Roll the basil leaves into a cigar shape and slice into thin ribbons. Toss with the contents of the large bowl just before serving and garnish with a few whole basil leaves.
