Panzanella Salad Recipe

This isn’t a recipe as such, more like an assembly of all things delicious.  At my work, me and one of my colleagues have started to cook for the rest of the team. So far we’ve many slow-cooked sous vide chilli con carne with chorizo, treacle and chocolate, Chinese broth with pork dumplings and chicken noodle salad.  This dish has to be one of my favourites. It’s light, vibrant and darn tasty. So much so we ended up doing a huge tray of this salad to feed most of the factory workers too!

Panzanella salad is an Italian salad traditionally using stale bread with tomatoes and olive oil to make a great summer salad. We added a ton of extras which I think most Florentines would frown upon but it went down a storm here.  If there aren’t any of the extras you like, have a play with what works well for you. Fresh peach wedges, chargrilled courgette strips, Parma ham or asparagus, no limit!

Picnic Panzanella

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• Author: foodnerd4life
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: A Lot of Hungry Workers

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Ingredients

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• 2 Loaves of Ciabatta Bread (cubed/torn, lightly toast if not a couple of days old or still doughy)
• 12 Ripe Tomatoes (diced, seeds in)
• 1/2 Cucumber (whole, diced)
• 1 Red Onion (thinly sliced)
• 200g Big Juicy Olives
• 1 tsp Caster Sugar
• 2 Roasted Red Peppers (seeded and sliced)
• 300g Canned Butterbeans (drained)
• 6 Cloves of Garlic (lightly roasted in olive oil)
• 100g Capers (drained)
• 1 Large Bunch of Fresh Basil (torn)
• 4 Balls of Mozzarella (roughly torn)
• 1 Small Bunch of Rocket
• Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar to drizzle over
• Salt and Pepper to taste

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Instructions

1. In a huge tray or bowl, tip in the ciabatta, top with the tomatoes and all of the juice from cutting them, then add all the ingredients except the basil, mozzarella and rocket.
2. Using your clean hands, get stuck in and mix it all up. Squish up some of the tomatoes, you want the juices from all the ingredients to soften and flavour the bread. Drizzle liberally with olive oil and season to taste.
3. When all mixed well. Cover and leave at room temperature for 30 mins to a couple of hours for the flavours to warm and amalgamate together.
4. When ready to serve, top the salad with the torn mozzarella, basil and rocket. Drizzle over some balsamic vinegar to taste and serve with a huge smug smile!

• Prep Time: 45 minutes
• Category: Salad
• Cuisine: Italian

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