RECIPE: Emma Dean’s Panzanella

One of my all time favourite salads is panzanella! It screams of summer with all of the beautiful seasonal tomatoes. It is substantial enough by itself for a light dinner and also accompanies BBQ meat really well! I picked my first red tomato this morning (see the photo), so am looking forward to making this salad regularly this summer!

Ingredients:

• 200 g stale ciabatta loaf, or sourdough (you want bread with a bit of chew normally)
• 600 g ripe mixed tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 small red onion, peeled and very finely sliced
• 2 lebanese cucumbers, roughly chopped
• 2 small chargrilled capsicums, sliced (you can buy these or make your own)
• 2 anchovy fillets in oil, drained and sliced finely (optional and you can also add more)
• 2 tbs baby capers, drained
• red wine vinegar
• extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• a bunch of fresh basil, leaves removed from stalks.

Method:

Tear the bread into smallish pieces and set aside in a warm place to dry out (or pop into a 150C oven for 20 mins).

Combine the tomatoes, onion, cucumbers, capsicum, anchovies and baby capers in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Add in about 2 tablespoons of the red wine vinegar, and then about 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil and toss to combine.

Add in the bread and toss to combine. Then finally add the basil leaves.

Serve on a platter, and enjoy with friends. Summer is officially here!

Xoxo

Emma

 

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