Hey guys, we are out here at Fullness Organic Farm, right here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
We’re gonna pick some fresh veg.. and grill up a nice Panzanella salad, it’s gonna be
great, let’s get to it!
Yeah, why farm in Louisiana?
First of all we’ve got a wonderful growing climate.
We can plant something every day of the year.
So, whether it’s summertime or in the dead of winter, we can.. we’ll be planting things.
And the second thing is our food heritage and culture.
You know you don’t have to talk to many people to find out how to cook something,
or how their grandma used to cook it, or what they used to eat at thanksgiving.
So it’s a place where maybe the best food you’ll have is at people’s houses.
And, so it’s kind of something that we are proud to be a part of.
We’re not growing things to be shipped 1,500 miles, which is the average calorie in America
travels that far.
It’s going 15 minutes down the road.
So we select varieties and grow things for flavor, which is correlated with nutrition
which is cool.
You know, we’re not looking for, oh.. red tomatoes that will ship well and all ripen
at the same time.
You know, we want the funky ones that were bred for flavor.. the heirloom things.
I think people are just drawn to it when they see it, they are like “oh, I want that green
and yellow striped tomato..
Like what is that?”
So just kinda neat, and it’s kind of the way food was.. food was meant to be.
Ok, so Grant was able to set us aside some beautiful veggies here, we’re gonna go ahead
and get our grill ready for our panzanella salad.
Let’s do it.
So While our coals are getting hot, we’ll go ahead and slice up our veggies that will
be going on the grill.
I’m gonna slice the eggplant thick, so that it will still have some good texture once
in the salad.
And I’ll go ahead and do the same for the red onion.
Now, I like bacon in my panzanella, but it is still delicious if you want to keep your
salad vegetarian.
We’ll cook this till crispy and pull it from the grill to cool while we finish prepping
the veggies.
Just drizzle with a little olive oil and season with a little cracked black pepper and salt.
All we are trying to do here is get a little color and some smokey flavor on these veggies.
The coals are nice and hot from cooking the bacon, so it won’t take long!
Classically, Panzanella is a tomato and bread based Tuscan chopped salad.
I’ve seen it made countless different ways..
Which is why I chose to cook this on the farm..
It really has a lot of flexibility to incorporate whatever vegetables are in season.
I’ve got some some beautiful tomatoes set aside, but I’m not gonna be grilling those
today.
I like to slice them fresh right before tossing everything together.
After the veggies have some nice color on them..
Drizzle the bread with a little olive oil..
Now because there will be a vinaigrette in this..
It will be good to get the bread crispy on the grill before cubing it up for the salad…
so that it doesn’t get too soggy.
For the dressing, we are making a simple vinaigrette with a little dijon mustard… a few cloves
of minced garlic..
some white wine vinegar.. whisk in some olive oil to bring it all together.
And season it up with some pepper and salt.
Now all that is left to do is rough chop the vegetables.
Man, these tomatoes are going to be awesome, you just can’t beat freshly picked.
Since they have some ripe cherry tomatoes.. and heirlooms..
I’ll use a little of both..
why not!
You know, I usually grill a lot of things centered around meat, so it’s a nice change
of pace making a dish like this.
And hey.. this is a Tuscan dish.. meaning it pairs great with a nice bottle of wine.
For the bread, basically just cube it about the size of large croutons.
This makes for a really hearty salad.
Next up, throw in a handful of fresh basil.. and some capers… just toss everything together
well... and top it with the vinaigrette right before serving.
Man, I love how colorful this dish comes out.. let’s give it a shot!
This is a great summer side.
being able to pick these veggies.. right to the grill, right to the table..
It gets no fresher than that guys.
Thanks for watching today, and remember at BBQGuys.com, we smoke the competition!