Panzanella

There are so many things I love about summer time! Recipes that include fresh tomatoes and basil are one of my favorites. It's got to be the unique flavors of the two items that sent my taste buds doing the happy dance.  This is a great salad for summer entertaining! You can bake the croutons a day or two ahead of time and store them in a ziplock baggie.


So here goes with a quick and easy recipe that will leave your family and friends wanting more!

Ingredients list:
1½ lbs of vine ripened tomatoes-seeded and chopped (see pictures)
1 cucumber- seeded and sliced thinly
1 shallot- sliced thinly
3 Tablespoons of red wine vinegar (get the good stuff, you'll thank me for this later) 
 6Tablespoons of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)  
½ teaspoon salt (I use Kosher salt in just about all of my recipes)
pepper to taste but I'd say no more than a ½ teaspoon
1 loaf rustic Italian bread (I use Ciabatta) 
basil- get the freshest that you can!

Here you see my 2 key ingredients the red wine vinegar and the olive oil.Yup my 2 favorite brands!

 

Slice tomato in half and remove the seeds. Here's a trick I learned when taking all of those private classes with various chefs- use a Grapefruit spoon when removing the core from tomatoes, cucumbers, melons basically anything that's soft and fleshy with seeds.

 The inside of that tomato look nice and seed free! Another trick when slicing tomatoes- use a serrated edge knife such as a steak or a bread knife. Makes a clean cut every time!

Here's my chopped tomato with the salt. I mix the salt into the tomatoes and let it sit for about 20 minutes letting it work it's magic. The juice from the tomatoes is part of the salad dressing.

After the tomatoes have had a chance to release their juices, add the red wine vinegar and mix, then add the olive oil and really mix with your little whisk. Add black pepper (no more than a ½ teaspoon, remember this is to your own personal tastes so add more or less as you like it). What you'll have is this. Now pour this over the tomatoes, cucumbers and sliced shallots. Let the flavors blend/marinate. This is also a good time to add the basil. Slice the basil thinly (sorry I didn't get a picture of this process). Add as much or as little ask you like. Me, I like a lot so I add a lot but go with a couple of chopped tablespoons at first and see how you like it and then go from there.

See how easy it is to seed a cucumber with a grapefruit spoon- it makes it so pretty!

Cut cucumber in half, cut out the seeds using a grapefruit spoon-then slice thinly.

Thinly sliced shallots, make sure to poke out all of the slices as no one likes to get a big ole bite of onion flavored anything.

My ciabatta bread cut into rustic cubes, I drizzle olive oil (about 1 teaspoon- separate from the 6 T used in the dressing). Spread out on a baking tray or two. Bake in a 400º oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Here's my baked croutons, nice and golden and dry! You need them to be dry so they won't get soggy in your salad.

I toss the tomato mixture on top of the home made croutons and mix thoroughly.

Here's the finished product- it's  seriously yummy!