Kat with a K

Recipe: Simple Panzanella for One

I'd heard about panzanella - bread and tomato salad - from friends, but never tried it before. And then one evening I found myself with some old bread, tomatoes that were almost past ripe, and no time to cook. I looked up a bunch of recipes, but they all wanted me to do weird, time-consuming things like soak the break in ice water (um, ew?) or strain the tomatoes or... etc. So I just gleaned the basic idea and made a really quick version, and it was delicious! And if you have a toaster oven, you don't even need to turn on the real oven - always a plus in the summer.

2 slices Italian (or other) bread - stale is fine
2 medium tomatoes
minced garlic
olive oil
basil
salt and pepper
grated romano cheese

1. Toast bread, then spread each slice with minced garlic and toast again. Let cool.
2. Once the bread is cool, cut it up into roughly bite-sized pieces and put it in a bowl. There will be some crumbs and garlic on your cutting board - scrape those into the bowl too.
3. Cut up the tomatoes into pieces of the same size as the bread and stir them in.
4. Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil - enough to coat everything but not be too oily. Shake in some dried basil (or fresh if you have it) and salt and pepper to taste. Grate on a bunch of romano cheese.
5. Stir it all up and let it sit for 20 minutes or so to let the flavors mesh and saturate the bread.
6. Enjoy with a nice glass of wine!