A bread salad. Yes, a bread salad! It’s as good as it sounds. We want to eat healthy AND we want to eat interesting, craveable food too.
Panzanella speaks to what I love in a salad – you look at the dish and think abundance. Abundance of colors, textures, bread and veggies and cheese and sauce. For anyone who thinks vegetarian dishes are bland or boring, you’ll be thinking differently after trying Panzanella!
Notes for Panzanella
- A dressing, an aioli, and a flavored oil!? Yeah, it’s a lot. In fact, the aioli and basil oil can be optional, and this salad would be great with just the dressing. Though the textures and colors are enhanced with all 3 components.
- This salad has room for lots of combinations! Try your favorite veggies, cheeses, breads, or even seafood or meats. Some seared shrimp would be beautiful with this salad!
- The astute may notice the picture for this recipe doesn’t have the dressing coating the bread or veggies! Yep, I went to the store to buy the ingredients for testing this recipe, and I accidentally bought sherry cooking wine instead of vinegar! Though I still put the dish together, completely leaving out the dressing, and it turned out great. This speaks to the adaptability of salads!
Panzanella
Ingredients
Veggies
- 1/4 Cup Shallot, sliced thinly
- 4 oz French or Italian Bread
- 2 Cups Eggplant, diced
- 1.5 Cups Cherry Tomatoes, halved
- 1 Cup Cucumber, diced, seeds removed
- 1/2 Cup Kalamata Olives, halved and pits removed
- 1 Bell Pepper (any color but green!)
- 8 oz Fresh Mozzarella, cubed
Dressing
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 5 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
- 1/4 Cup Sherry Vinegar or Champagne Vinegar
- 3/4 Cup Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper
Roasted Red Pepper Aioli
- 1 Red Bell Pepper
- 1 Cup Mayo
- 2 cloves Garlic
- Salt and Pepper
Basil Oil
- 1/2 Cup Basil Leaves, chopped
- 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- Make the dressing: Gently brown whole garlic cloves (peeled, please!) in a teaspoon of olive oil over medium low heat until tender, about 8-10 minutes. We'll do this with the garlic for the aioli so you can toast all 6 cloves right now.
- Blend 4 cloves garlic with vinegar and mustard. Slowly drizzle in olive oil while whisking or blending to emulsify. If you have a blender that doesn't allow for adding while blending, simply add your oil in a couple Tablespoons at a time in between blending.
- Pour dressing over your sliced shallots and let sit while you prepare the rest of the dish. The mild acidity in the dressing will take some of the sharp, oniony flavor away as we won't be cooking the shallots. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Make the Aioli
- Roast your red bell pepper (you could also use store-bought roasted peppers if you want to make things easier). Place your pepper on on oven rack and turn broil on to high. Let the skin of the pepper char well all over. Once the majority of the pepper looks charred, remove from oven and let sit, covered, for 5-10 minutes. Peel the skin off the pepper, but be careful as there will be steam inside that could burn you!
- Combine your two already toasted cloves of garlic with the peeled pepper and blend well. Mix into mayo, taste, and season with salt and pepper if needed.
Make the Basil Oil
- Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend for just a few seconds. This is a rare case where I won't season a component of a dish, as the rest of the dish will be seasoned well, and a bite with a flavor of pure basil makes for a really nice, balanced bite.
Build the Dish
- Roast your eggplant: 450 degrees for about 10 minutes, until tender. Season your eggplant with salt and pepper, and give a light coat of olive oil before roasting.
- Reduce oven to 350 degrees and toast your bread until browned, but still a little chewy inside, about 10 minutes.
- Combine eggplant, bread, dressing with the shallots, and rest of veggies and mozzarella in a serving bowl. Serve drizzled with red pepper aioli and basil oil.
