Panzanella is a classic Italian bread salad. But I'm going to show you a
panzanella with a special twist you're only going to find right here on True
Food TV. Hello lovely people! Nicole here! This is the third installment in my
ultimate summer salad series. You don't want to miss the other two - I'm going to
link them at the end. Now, when you think of a hearty summer salad, what do you
think of? Pasta salad? Potato salad? Hopefully the potato salad I showed you
a couple of weeks ago. Well, I think of a panzanella salad. It's a bread and tomato
salad that is as fresh as a caprese, but much more filling and it's ideal for the
middle of tomato season, when you're already kind of sick of a caprese. Now I
make two versions of this salad: a Moroccan flavored one, and a more classic
Italian one. With just a few minor tweaks, it's super easy to change this to your
preferred palate. I am going to do the Moroccan flavored one today which is my
favorite, but I will show you how to adapt the flavors to the Italian one. Now,
we're going to start with the main ingredient: the bread. You can use any
bread you like, as long as it's a whole loaf, and not any of that pre sliced
prepackaged bread you get in the supermarket - which you shouldn't be
eating anyway - because you've seen our gluten episode, right? You want a bread
with flavor, so pick a sourdough or a whole-grain bread. This is a whole-wheat
sourdough, but basically you're gonna take half a loaf, and you're going to cut
it into chunky cubes. So I'm gonna take our knife and just cut it in really
thick slices. Now historically panzanella was invented by cooks to use up old
bread, so you can actually use stale bread to three day old bread. We're going
to do the same thing to it. We're going to toast it in the oven, so whether you
have fresh or stale bread, you're going to pop it in the oven for just a little
bit. But if you do have old bread, this is a great way to combat food waste.
Lay the cubes out on a tray, toss them with olive oil and salt, and bake them at
300 degrees for 15 minutes. We're looking for crispness, not necessarily color, okay?
While those baked, I'm going to skip ahead to the dressing which is my secret
weapon - and my own special twist on the panzanella. Now the traditional recipe
calls for the juices of the tomatoes to sort of be your dressing, but I use
roasted red peppers in my dressing, which gives it a silky thicker texture and a
smoky depth of flavor - especially if you use peppers cooked on a barbecue. Red
peppers and tomatoes are a classic Moroccan combo and they work really well
with cumin - which we're going to also put in the dressing. So let's do it!
We're going to make the dressing in a small food processor, first 12 ounces of
roasted and peeled peppers - feel free to use the ones that come in a jar;
three little anchovies packed in oil - don't worry the anchovies aren't going
to make this fishy, you're not even going to know it's there - it's just giving a
layer of savoriness; a little punch of umami; one clove of garlic; 1/2 a teaspoon
of cumin, one and a half tablespoons of red wine vinegar, and a quarter cup of
olive oil. Now blend it all together until you get a smooth thick consistency.
It will look more like a dip than a traditional dressing. We're going to let
the dressing sit a little bit, so the vinegar can help mellow out the garlic.
In the meantime, we're going to assemble the salad. For the salad, you'll need your
toasted cubes of bread, now cooled; 3 large tomatoes - you're going to cut these
into thick slices; 1/2 a cup of olives; 4 ounces of crumbled feta; and a small
bunch of chopped cilantro or parsley, whichever you prefer,
into your serving bowl. Add your bread and tomatoes and then the dressing,
give it a good toss. I like to use clean hands so I can get the dressing on every
chunk of bread. Then add your olives, herbs, and feta. Give it one final toss.
The beauty of this salad is that the texture will change as you eat it.
So as the bread absorbs the dressing, the middle of the cubes will get creamy
while the edges will stay crispy. Now to make the Italian version, simply swap out
the cilantro for basil, and the feta for ricotta salata, and in the dressing just
replace the cumin with half a teaspoon of dried oregano. Now be sure to let me
know when you make this recipe, or any of the other two right here in this summer
salad series. Buon appetito!