| Moscow Food Co-op Recipes | |
Panzanella Salad
by Jen Hirt, from the August 2004 newsletter
This month’s recipe will please those who like to use every last scrap of food. You don’t even have to pretend you survived the Great Depression, although, when serving this dish, (and especially if you are an ironic twenty-something), it’s fun to preface the serving by reminding your guests that you kept your eleven Italian grandkids alive during the lean times with this very dish. And wave your spoon around when you do it.
As a kid who grew up eating tissue-soft grocery-store white bread, I didn’t even realize that some breads got “old” one day out of the oven. When our bread did get “old,” after a few weeks (thanks to a battalion of preservatives), my mom would feed it to the sparrows and crows. The lesson here was that one did not eat old bread. I certainly draw the line at moldy bread, but now old bread has a better end in Panzanella salad. It takes just a few minutes to mix up after the bread is toasted, and it uses a slew of seasonal ingredients.
Almost any day-old bread is suitable for Panzanella salad, and the Co-op’s bread case usually has a few lonely loaves which are perfect for this recipe. Traditional Panzanella recipes call for Italian, French, or coarse “country” breads. Picking the perfect tomato is important, too. Think overripe and juicy. This is not a salad for those crunchy winter tomatoes that only aspire to redness. The suggestion to use eight medium tomatoes is a very loose guideline. Technically, you could use two of those monstrous beefsteak tomatoes, or ten tiny heirloomers — the point is to use juicy tomatoes that will slightly soften the toasted bread.
Panzanella Salad
Serves 4
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1/2 tbsp. chopped fresh oregano
1/2 tbsp. chopped fresh chives
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 small loaf (about 10 oz.) day old bread
8 medium and very ripe tomatoes
First, you will need to toast the bread unless is it already very dry. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Cut the bread into crouton-sized cubes. Spread on a cookie sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the bread starts to feel crisp. Alternately, you can cube the bread and just let it sit out overnight in a brown bag until it’s stale.
While the bread toasts, mix the vinegar, olive oil, herbs, and seasonings in a bowl big enough to eventually hold all the ingredients. Dice the tomatoes and stir them (and their juice) into the bowl. Finally, simply stir in the bread until it is just barely coated. Serve immediately.
A one-serving variation of this recipe is really easy, and perfect for making use of those final two slices of forlorn bread. Toast the slices of bread in the toaster. Chop one medium tomato and put it in a salad bowl with a pinch or two of whatever herbs you have around. Stir in a 1/2 tbsp of olive oil and a 1/2 tsp. red wine vinegar, or just substitute a full tbsp. of Italian dressing. Cube the toast, mix it in, and season with a dash of salt and pepper.
A final variation is to replace the red wine vinegar with balsamic vinegar and add a 1/2 cup of pitted and sliced Kalamata olives.
Jen Hirt has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Idaho. In September and October she’ll be the writer-in-residence at the Bernheim Arboretum in Clermont, Kentucky.
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