panzanella was something we served at the restaurant for events. it'd almost always be out with a crudité spread, but never once was it on the menu, nor would it be at any fine dining restaurant. the dish is literally a salad of leftovers. and here's what i did:
there's only one way to soften this bread and still maintain any hope of it returning to any sort of edible state. you have to rehydrate it. i cut the bread—literally taking a mallet to my kitchen knife the bread was so hard—into essential cubes. then just cover with water, and if you care about your food actually tasting good, season it. the key, and what i stole from dante, was hitting the mixture with tomato. i used a simple sauce we had in the fridge, but even juice works. you want the acid and the sweetness—and believe me, it'll show through. the bread literally absorbs this.
i love basil and only included this picture because of how flippin' big the basil leaves were on the plant i brought home from green city market. unbelievable.
the salad can be whatever you want it to be. mine was tomato, roasted red pepper, red onion, garlic, lots of basil, fresh mozzarella, lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar. season it how you want and boom, there it is. there's nothing complex about it and really, the point is to use what you have in the house. there's no reason to hit the store for anything you throw in it.
it makes you think about how much something like this makes sense, and thank god people in the old world cooked this way. for dante, tossing a panzanella on a crudité table added a touch of rustic italian charm, while hardly cutting into his food cost at all. and why in the world aren't we cooking like this more often, and encouraging one another to really do so?
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This was one of my saving grace dishes at school. When I had eaten too much salmon day after day, too much lame "salad" (aka just lettuce in a bowl. Literally), there was always some class who had made this dish, and it is always fantastic. If I had any stale bread these days I would be tempted to make it, but a piece of bread around us here is lucky if it lasts till afternoon without being slathered in butter, cheese, confiture or meat. Or all four. Sigh. I love bread.
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