Tomato & Bread Salad

[Jaymes]

Ripe summer tomatoes are in the markets now, and the pots of basil are bursting with their fragrant green goodness.

This is the time of year I make Tomato & Bread Salad.

Do you?

Mine:

Four good-sized slices two-day-old Italian bread, cubed (about 4 cups)

2 C chopped tomatoes (either cherry tomato halves, or other flavorful tomato, seeded and chopped)

1/2 C chopped sweet salad onions (Maui, red, 1015's)

Handful fresh basil leaves, chiffonade

3 T EVOO

1 T wine vinegar (or to taste)

sea salt & black pepper to taste.

Toss all.... let set at room temp about 5-10 minutes.

Serves two as a main course luncheon salad.

[Brad S]

Sounds like a type of panzanella to me,

Good stuff.

Ever add anchovies?

[Jaymes]

Sounds like a type of panzanella to me,

Good stuff.

Ever add anchovies?

I haven't. Don't know why, but just haven't "fiddled around" with this recipe much. Like it so well as is.

That's really why I started this topic.

Wonder what other people do.

[John Whiting]

Now, that's in the real gazpacho tradition! How wonderful that would be with an old hunk of Poilane's pain levain.

[Orik]

I like to add some minced garlic and chopped olives.

[Suvir Saran]

I make the recipe below. It is best this time of the year. Thanks to someone at this site, I was able to get myself a flat each of red and yellow tomatoes and several great heirloom tomatoes at the farmers market in Union Square yesterday.

Tomorrow I will make chutneys out of the red and yellow tomatoes.

The heirloom became bread salad and some will be eaten with mozarella and basil in an hour.

Spicy Bread and Tomato Salad

This refreshing salad is unique in a couple of ways: It's made with whole wheat bread, which adds nuttiness, and it's got a warm, spice-infused dressing. Use a hearty bakery loaf rather than packaged sandwich bread.

Servings: 4

Ingredients

12 thick slices whole wheat bread, cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 15 cups)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 large onion, halved crosswise and sliced

2 jalapeños, seeded and finely chopped

Salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/3 cup plain whole milk yogurt, stirred until smooth

2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

1 medium European cucumber, peeled and cut into small dice

Juice of 1/2 lime

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Spread the diced bread out on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast for 6 to 7 minutes, or until dry on the outside. Remove from the oven.

2. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet. Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, for 1 minute. Add the onion and jalapeños, season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened but not browned, about 8 minutes. Stir in the cayenne pepper and the yogurt. Add the toasted bread and stir gently to coat with the dressing. Stir in the tomatoes, cover and cook until the bread is softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Gently stir in the cucumber and lime juice and season with salt. Spoon the salad onto individual plates and serve.

-- Stephanie Lyness and Suvir Saran

[Suvir Saran]

For recipe and picture of the above salad, you can visit the Food & Wine magazine site as well.

[Jaymes]

Suvir.... WOW.

That looks fabulous!

Does it taste as good as it sounds???

[Suvir Saran]

Suvir.... WOW.

That looks fabulous!

Does it taste as good as it sounds???

Jaymes... maybe you can make it and report back.

All the ingredients are easy to find.

[Jim Dixon]

I use the soak-and-squeeze method on the bread. It turns into a sort of mush rather than discreet cubes, but that's how I like it.

Jim

[Jaymes]

I use the soak-and-squeeze method on the bread. It turns into a sort of mush rather than discreet cubes, but that's how I like it.

Jim

Jim -

What do you soak the bread in? Water? The vinegar and oil dressing?

[Rhea_S]

Spicy Bread and Tomato Salad

I know what I'm having for dinner tomorrow night. I have to get a couple more tomatoes and a cucumber at the local farmer's market and I'm all set. I just had a bread baking marathon this weekend and one happens to be whole wheat. I'm making panzanella with the ciabatta for lunch tomorrow. I've been getting delicious heirloom tomatoes (I prefer yellow) the last two weeks.

[Jim Dixon]

Jaymes

When a loaf starts to get stale, I leave it out to dry, then either process into crumbs or sometimes resurrect for bread salad. And I mean dry, like rock hard. These I soak in water until they soften up.

If the bread is merely stale, it usually gets a quick dunk, also in water.

With both I squeeze over the sink, and in the process the bread turns into a mealy lump. I break this up in the bowl that I make the salad in.

Other ingredients depend on what's on hand...often as simple as just tomatoes, shallot, oil, vinegar, and salt, but I'm not a purist and will add cukes, peppers (better if ripe, eg red, and roasted), green onions, parsley, mint, or basil.

Jim

[Suvir Saran]

Spicy Bread and Tomato Salad

I know what I'm having for dinner tomorrow night. I have to get a couple more tomatoes and a cucumber at the local farmer's market and I'm all set. I just had a bread baking marathon this weekend and one happens to be whole wheat. I'm making panzanella with the ciabatta for lunch tomorrow. I've been getting delicious heirloom tomatoes (I prefer yellow) the last two weeks.

Sounds exciting... keep us posted... Sounds like you have all the right ingredients.

[torakris]

That spicy bread and tomato sounds wonderful! I have got to try it out this week. I like my bread salads on the chewy side, no soaking for me. I make a simple dressing of olive oil and red wine vinegar, throw in some sweet onions, kalamata olives, and loads of mint (or a mixture of mint and basil), delicious!

[Rhea_S]

Thanks for the Spicy Bread Salad recipe Suvir. I made it for dinner and it was very tasty. It was a pleasant change from my usual bread salads. I was a little skeptical of the lime juice, but it really pulled the flavours together. I wish I had put more jalapeno or maybe used a hotter pepper. The jalapeno I put in there turned out to be too mild for my taste.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

After a bread disaster wherein I inadvertently left the salt out of my dough, I tried a panzanella recipe.  The result was pretty vile.  I understand traditionally the bread for panzanella is soaked in water and gently squeezed, but I could find no such recipe on egullet, from google, or in the cookbooks that I have.

 

Can anyone offer help?

[djyee100]

Pamela Sheldon Johns, author of Cucina Povera, explains what kind of bread is used in traditional panzanella, and gives her recipe here:
http://food52.com/hotline/20141-panzanella

 

I've never tried this version of panzanella. I'm guessing you have to get the quantity of water just right and use a light touch in combining the salad. Otherwise you get bread mush. Also, you should probably start with dry bread that is like a rock.

[Mjx]

After a bread disaster wherein I inadvertently left the salt out of my dough, I tried a panzanella recipe.  The result was pretty vile.  I understand traditionally the bread for panzanella is soaked in water and gently squeezed, but I could find no such recipe on egullet, from google, or in the cookbooks that I have.

 

Can anyone offer help?

 

Since you're using bread that has no salt, you may be better satisfied with a Tuscan recipe (traditionally, Tuscan bread is unsalted, although most savoury things are unusually salty). Or, panzanella may just not be your thing: damp bread is kind of an acquired taste.

 

If you're feeling adventurous, try a search for [panzanella toscana ricetta]. Because the vocabulary is so limited, recipes are easy to figure out, even if you don't know the language they're written in.

 

Translation of a pretty standard-looking recipe (from teladoiofirenze), described as serving 4:

200 g stale bread (the bread specified is [Tuscan] 'pane casalingo', which is unsalted, and also high in gluten, if I'm not mistaken–at any rate, it does not easily disintegrate when wet–sliced, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, squeezed dry, crumbled, and placed in a tureen (a bowl is fine)

To this you add,

2 ripe tomatoes, 1 red onion and 1 cucumber (peeled and sliced)

Dress the works with oil and salt, mix well, and refrigerate.

When you serve the panzanella, add a little vinegar, and garnish with some fresh basil.

 

 

 

If you're in a video-watching mood, here's a demo:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44KzOto90DI

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I did this, thanks.  I took the day old half of a round unsalted loaf, sliced and tore it up, and soaked in water.  While that was soaking I cut up onion and tomatoes (no cucumber) and tossed with salt and oil.  Then gently stirred in the carefully squeezed bread pieces.  I let that sit at room temperature for a while, then served with vinegar.

 

This salad worked better than the unsoaked version the other day.  I think it with have been even better to my taste if it had sat with vinegar as well as oil.

[rotuts]

very interesting.

 

I make HomeMade(Machine)Bread all the time.  perhaps every 2.5 days.  about 1/4 of the older bread gets processed in the Cuisinart 11 Plus

 

which  my local birds seem to enjoy.  esp the two family of Cardinals.

 

I have had stunning Bread Salad.

 

getting to the Point and the M.R. might need some attention soon 

 

might there be a more flavorful rehydration process ?

[Shelby]

I bet you could soak the bread in fresh tomato juice.......

[rotuts]

i.e.  you chop then up your self

 

Most Excellent !

 

S.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

i.e.  you chop then up your self

 

Most Excellent !

 

S.

 

This is basically what I did the first time around.  However it took until the following day to get a good result.  Had I been so inclined I suppose I could have vacuum infused the bread with the tomato juice in the Polyscience.