~Sunday, September 8, 2013
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| Beefsteak tomatoes from my mom's garden |
With the days of summer coming to an end,
as well as the harvesting of tomatoes, I thought I would feature my mom’s unique
twist to a popular Italian bread and tomato salad: panzanella. This salad is all about the bread. Not just any bread, but the yummy Italian crusty
kind that tastes great with anything! Trust
me, don’t try to substitute panzanella with wheat bread, or you’ll get the same
feedback I did—my husband stating, “I’d like this salad better if you left out the bread next time.” —Mamma mia! What was I thinking?!?!
Ingredients (Serves 4 as a starter)
1 ripe beefsteak tomato, cut
into 1-inch pieces
½ English cucumber, quartered
and sliced
½ cup red onion, coarsely
chopped
4 golden Greek pepperoncini,
sliced into ¼-inch pieces
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil,
plus more to drizzle
3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper
to taste
1 (7 ounce) can albacore tuna
packed in water
4 ½-inch-thick slices ciabatta
bread
7 fresh basil leaves, torn into
small pieces (can substitute with oregano)
Place the tomato, cucumber,
onion, and pepperoncini in a large salad bowl.
Add the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper; mix well and let rest (allowing
the natural juices to release and flavor the salad).
Meanwhile, toast the sliced
bread and drain the tuna. Using a fork,
break up the large pieces of tuna as you add it to the salad, and top with 1-inch
pieces of the toasted bread (broken apart by hand). Drizzle olive oil over
bread. Add a little more fresh pepper, mix
gently and serve.
Hopefully in following my 'Growing Tomatoes' blogs earlier this season, you had as successful a harvest this year as my mom did!
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| Hard at work |
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| Fruits of labor |
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| The harvest! |
