Panzanella

Happy Boy Heirloom Tomatoes, arguably the best product they have all year, are rolling in stem over blossom scar at a rate that I have a difficult time keeping up with! I'm talking Brandywine, Red, Pink, Yellow, and Black Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra, Paul Robeson, and Early Girls!

As a kid I hated tomatoes, probably because all we ever ate were the sad tasteless globes the tomato-growing industry delivered year-round to the local Food Lion. Back then I never could have told you that tomatoes have a definitive season. Now I don't even bother buying tomatoes out of season. I don't see the point. I would rather wait till summer to have that BLT than waste my money and support an industry that picks tomatoes rock-hard and green, then treats them with ethylene gas (the plant's natural ripening agent) to soften and redden them for delivery. This is to say nothing of what growing tomatoes in a monoculture has done for the environment or human rights and health.

You've probably guessed by now that the next few posts will be about tomatoes, as the glut on my counter begs to be put to good use.


Panzanella, or bread salad, is one of my favorite things to do with summertime tomatoes. If you've never heard of it, you may be thinking Bread? Salad? I thought they were mutually exclusive? And in most countries you'd be right, but Panzanella is Italian and the Italians are masters of incorporating bread, especially stale bread, into all sorts of things including salad. Usually these dishes have the word paisano, or peasant, in there somewhere.

The main ingredients are bread (good bread if you have it and on the stale side, but not like crouton hard or break your teeth on that green tomato hard. I used Tartine's bread which is maybe the best bread I've ever had.) and tomatoes (delicious, ripe, and in season, puh-lease). For obvious reasons I made mine heavy on the tomato and, if you like, you can add cubed red and yellow peppers.


A note of worth: panzanella is best at its freshest, so plan/reduce recipe as you see fit and unless cold soggy bread is your thing, I don't recommend keeping this for leftovers. Unless--UNLESS--you warm it in a saute pan for breakfast and serve it with a poached or fried egg on top. I call it Italian Peasant Breakfast and it's friggin' gooooood.

Panzanella

3 T olive oil
6 C cubed crusty/french bread
1 tsp salt
3 large tomatoes, cubed
1 cucumber, cut in 1/2" slice
1/2 red onion, sauteed in olive oil
20 basil leaves, cut into a chiffonnade
3 T capers, optional

1. Heat olive oil in a large saute pan and then add cubed bread and salt and stir/toss to coat in oil. Brown till golden on med-high heat. Remove to a large bowl.

2. Saute onion in leftover pan oil till softened and then add to bread.

3. Add everything else to the bowl, including the following vinaigrette and toss to coat. If you can resist eating it all then, let the panzanella sit for about 10 minutes, allowing the flavors to marry and the bread to get the perfect amount of moist before digging in.

Vinaigrette:

1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp dijon
3 T champagne vinegar
1/2 C olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1. Add everything to a jar with a well-sealing lid and then shake it till emulsified. This vinaigrette is delicious on green salad as well, so why not make extra?