Date: 2007-08-11 23:00 Subject: Recipe: Panzanella Security: Public Tags: recipe

It's August. It's hot and humid here in Atlanta, and I think I'll go crazy if I have to turn on my oven for very long (which I will have to do as I didn't think far enough ahead). I'm making panzanella, an Italian salad that incorporates stale bread, or at least a home-cook version that involves fridge clean-out ingredients (which, I think, is the entire POINT of panzanella, so there). And so, a narrative recipe without much in the way of amounts or whatnot.

My salad started with a couple of day-old ciabatta loaves and some heirloom tomatoes from Whole Foods 'cause I didn't have a garden this year (a Black Krim, and one red & one yellow Brandywine). I chopped the tomatoes into a big dice, not quite an inch, and dumped them to marinate in a balsamic vinaigrette (2:1 ratio with extra-virgin olive oil and lots of salt/pepper), then tore up one ciabatta into about the same size and dried it in a 250 degree oven for 40 minutes. [Make lots of vinaigrette - at least 2x as much as you would think is excessive - the bread soaks it up! Mine was 2/3 cup oil and 1/3 cup balsamic and I needed about half a cup more.] If you like capers, add some here - I did not, as the landlord visited for supper and he is allergic. Oh well.

Later, I tore some fresh basil into a box of baby romaine leaves, then mixed in the marinated tomatoes and dry bread, along with some fresh mozzarella and some prosciutto torn into strands over the top. You could add red onion if you wanted. Extra ciabatta on the side to sop up vinaigrette/tomato juices.

Bing cherries (lunch tomorrow for me!) and vanilla gelato for dessert.