Panzanella
Looking for the perfect summer salad? Late summer to early fall is the peak season for heirloom tomatoes, used in panzanella, a classic dish which originates from Tuscany, Italy. Fresh heirloom tomatoes meet basil, mozzarella, yuzu marmalade and sourdough bread, in our version of this dish. We find this recipe works best with our ancient grain sourdough loaves. We made a large batch for 6-8 people, but the recipe can be scaled up or down as necessary.
- 1⁄2 loaf of organic 123Dough Bakery sourdough bread (Approx. 375 grams)
- 4 tsp salt
- 4lbs of fresh heirloom tomatoes
- 1 medium sized red onion
- 1-2 balls of mozzarella (depending on preference)
- 1 cup of fresh basil
- 4 cloves of fresh garlic
- 1/2 cup of Organic Balsamic Vinegar
- 1 1/4 cup of Organic Olive Oil
- 2 tsp Organic Yuzu Marmalade
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
* Note: We got all of our fresh produce locally as we are really big on supporting local businesses: Rochambeau Farm in Mount Kisco: Tomatoes, onion, basil, garlic. The Market in Pound Ridge: Fresh mozzarella balls
Step 1: Bread prep
- Cut your sourdough bread into 1 inch cubes. You can use stale bread or fresh bread, but it is important to remove any moisture in the bread.
- Coat the bread cubes in 4 tbsp of olive oil and 1tsp of salt and mix.
- Bake the bread cubes for approximately 10 minutes at 300 degrees, just to remove any moisture. The cubes can turn dark brown, but do not let them burn, so keep an eye on them. If you are using stale bread, you can reduce the baking time, and you are in this case looking for a nice dark golden crust.
- Remove and set aside to cool.
Step 2: Extract juice from tomatoes
- Dice the tomatoes and put into a strainer with a bowl or large beaker underneath.
- Sprinkle 1 tsp of salt over the tomatoes and mix
- Let the tomatoes sit in the strainer for about 10 minutes and let the juice collect inside the bowl/beaker.
Step 3: Make the sauce
- In a large bowl, add the remainder of the olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.
- Crush the fresh garlic and add to the bowl
- Add in the yuzu marmalade and remainder of the salt, along with the black pepper.
- Finely slice the red onion and mix it into the sauce.
- Let the onions and sauce sit for approximately 10 minutes to temper the onions.
Step 4: Final prep and assembly
- Chop the basil into rough pieces and put into your salad bowl (you will need a large bowl)
- Add in the diced tomatoes, sauce with red onion, tomato juice, and bread.
- Mix all of these parts together.
- Add your fresh mozzarella by tearing pieces by hand and then giv the entire salad a quick mix and refrigerate.
- Your salad will be ready to eat in approximately 3-4 hours when the juice has been fully absorbed by the bread, but yet the bread still as a nice crunch!
Notes:
The salad can keep a few days, but you will lose the crunchiness of the bread before the first night is over, so we do recommend serving this when you have some helpers to enjoy it with. Enjoy!
