After feasting onto a decadent and moorish chocolate babka, which I baked last weekend, I needed something very light and quick to do recipe. To be honest, I was literally craving for a bowl of salad. But I didn’t want to spend a lot of time in kitchen on Sunday too, after I had spent my Saturday morning baking those elaborate lovely loaves. I always want my Sunday to be more relaxed and lazy. So most of my Sunday afternoons, I munch on fruits and salads only, skipping lunch {in order to avoid cooking}. This rustic tuscan panzanella salad (bread and tomato salad) is my go to salad whenever I have some stale bread lying on my kitchen counter. I just love the sweetness of juicy tomatoes and the sharpness of red wine vinegar which gets soaked so beautifully into dry chunks of roughly torn bread. This salad shouts out summer to me and has been an all time favorite of my friends too. You can never go wrong with these simple flavors and lively colors.
- 1kg ripe tomatoes (mixed variety)
- 1 cucumber
- 300 gm sourdough bread (a day old)
- 250 gm buffalo mozzarella
- 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
- 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp capers
- 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
- 2 tbsp fresh oregano leaves
- Put the onion, vinegar, sugar, salt in a bowl, toss to combine. Leave to macerate for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, torn the bread into chunks and lay on a baking sheet. Bake in oven on 180 degree C for 5-8 minutes, until completely dry.
- Chop the tomatoes roughly. Put in a bowl and season with salt. Half the cucumber lengthwise, scrape out the seeds with the help of spoon and dice diagonally and add to tomatoes.
- Add capers, oregano, bread chunks and mozzarella. Drizzle over the extra virgin olive oil.
- Add the onions along with soaking liquid to the bowl. Then toss it all together.
- Leave the salad to sit for 5-10 minutes, the add the basil leaves and toss everything together again.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning, if required. Serve with a good fruity white wine.
Your photos are so inspirational!!!
This salad looks wonderful!