This Tuscan based salad will take you straight to the Italian cafes, sipping on a glass of your favourite poison, and savouring this salad with every mouthful. Its bursting with classic flavours, and is quite rustic in its simplicity.
In this salad, the star ingredient is any crusty bread - sourdough, ciabatta, baguette or any stale bread. I used the whole wheat sourdough I made at home. Here's my take on the classic panzanella.
SERVES 4
INGREDIENTS
3 cups of any rustic bread cubed
1 cup cherry tomatoes
½ cup shallots or pearl onions
½ cup sliced cucumber
½ cup basil leaves torn
½ cup yellow capsicum diced
¼ cup crumpled tofu or feta/goat cheese if not vegan
¼ cup olive oil
2-3 tbsp vinegar
5-6 cloves garlic minced
Salt and pepper to taste
METHOD
Marinate the onions in the vinegar for 10-15 min.
Toss the bread cubes with little oil and salt and toast in the oven until brown.
Take out the onions from the vinegar and mix with tomatoes, capsicum and cucumber.
Use the vinegar for the dressing and add all other dressing ingredients.
Once the bread is cooled, toss the vegetables in.
Mix in the marinade. Add few basil leaves and salt and pepper to the tofu and the remaining leaves to the salad.
Top this tofu mixture over the salad.
TIP: Make this salad ahead of time and refrigerate. The longer the better, so the bread can soak in all the flavours.
Optional: You can also crush few tomatoes and add to make the dressing more flavourful.
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