My sweet cousin was in town, leafing through a beautiful Italian cookbook of my mom's, noting her favorites. One was Panzanella. I liked the picture. The tomatoes were full and juicy, the bread looked crunchy, the oil was dripping off the peppers...my mouth was watering. She turned the page and we started oohing and ahhing over the next photo. Panzanella became a distant memory.
A few days later as my handsome hubby and I were gleening beautiful peppers and tomatoes from our garden (truthfully, his garden), that mouth-watering photograph popped back into my head. Thankfully, Scott dosen't eat tomatoes, so I get them all to myself! I started chopping...red plump tomatoes, crunchy green peppers, onions sweet and fragrant. I added fresh basil (yes, from our small yet bountiful garden), two cloves of crushed garlic, s/p, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.
We had a few errands to run before we fired up the bbq so my beautiful salad got to sit and be merry for a bit. We came home to a house that smelled heavenly! Scott took care of the sausages on the grill while I put some dill rye in the toaster. I tore the hot toast and tossed it in the bowl. The juice from the tomatoes and the oil/vinegar/garlic coated the toast. I took a forkful. Then another. It was simple, fresh and oh so delicious! Not your typical panzanella, but definately one for the blog. Thank you Monika for opening my mind to what our garden had to offer. I just wish Scott liked tomatoes...well at least to sample...
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The picture is so beautiful, I can almost smell it! I was told panzanella means 'little swamp' - appropriate, but sounds so much better in Italian, doesn't it? It is such a great way to use up old bread, which meant we ate it a lot when I was living on the farm, since Tuscany's unsalted bread goes stale virtually overnight.
ReplyDeleteAll that leftover bread would either go to feed the dogs (who would lobby heartily for this option), or it would be deliciously resurrected into great heaping bowls of panzanella.
Yet another thing to love about Italy - even though it is a typically Italian 'waste not want not' way to use old bread, it isn't just something to feed to the family in the back room, it was proudly served to guests, and to great acclaim. Delizioso! Thanks for bringing back memories!