Tuscan Panzanella Salad
Tuscan Panzanella Salad recipe has fantastic flavours of fresh tomatoes, red onions. lovely peppers and basil which is a true friend to a tomato salad. Any time you use tomato don’t forget to add some basil leaves to bring the flavour to your pallet.
Servings: 4 people
Calories:
Equipment
- Pairing Knife
Ingredients
- 500 g Tomatoes
- 400 g Peppers
- 150 g Staled Ciabata Bread
- 100 g Red Onions
- 5 g Basil Leaves
- 60 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 20 ml White wine vinegar
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pre -heat the oven to 200C
- Roasted peppers: place the peppers in a roasting tray and drizzle with a bit of olive oil and salt
- Should take around 30 minutes or till peppers skin start to colour and blister, don’t worry if some of the skin in burned you will remove it anyway.
- Remove from the oven and cool
- Meanwhile cut the tomatoes in wedges and chunks
- Place in a large bowl and add the thinly sliced onion and basil
- Dress with the remaining olive oil, vinegar salt and pepper
- By now the peppers should be cool enough to touch, peel off the skin which should come off very easily
- Add the pealed peppers roughly chopped using the roasting juices as well.
- Add the staled ciabatta roughly chopped and mix well. The reason for staled good quality ciabatta bread is because Italians did not like to waste anything and it was bad luck to throw away bread, also staled bread can absorb all the juices and transform itself in texture. Adding a little crunch to your Panzanella Salad!
- Leave the salad for 10 minutes before serving for the stale bread to absorb the juices from the tomatoes and peppers, also to soften up a little
- Taste for seasoning and serve
Notes
hints and tips
Ready bought roasted peppers can be used instead of roasting yourself to speed up the preparation time
Fresh ciabatta bread can be used instead of staled, just toast in the oven for 5-8 minutes to add the bite and crunch to the salad. If you are roasting your peppers, simply add the bread to the oven at the same time. Please keep an eye on timing as the croutons will be ready a lot faster than the pepper.
The salad can be prepared in advance, but add the bread at the last minute to ensure it does not go soggy!
ALLERGEN: GLUTEN, SULPHIDES. Suitable for vegans and vegetarians. *Gluten Free Option - substitute croutons with gluten free toasted or staled bread.
