Tuesday 5 May 2015

Very Pleasant, Peasant Food!

Panzanella Bella
Beautiful Panzanella Salad


Sometimes, all that you need is a good, hearty salad. And salads needn't be lightweight, namby-pamby affairs either... They can be rustic, and satisfying too!

In fact, what could be better than a good old "panzanella" salad, using toasted old bread for a crunchy and filling addition, so soak up all the juices and to make a simple salad into a full meal!


 
 
Basically, panzanella is an old, traditional Italian recipe for a salad, using up leftovers of stale bread and tomatoes... Simple but good food. When combined with a good olive oil and a few other greens or vegetables, you can transform these such humble ingredients into something worthwhile and delicious. It may be peasant food... But it is highly pleasant food!

 

You can add whichever ingredients you have available, or you prefer, when making your salad, but a good combination of juicy and crunchy textures is what I like to aim for. In mine this evening, I had a small head of romaine lettuce, a few outer leaves from the puntarelle the other night (wild chicory), cherry tomatoes, radishes, a few of those little pimiento peppers and some feta cheese. To make the salad infinitely more delicious I added fresh herbs- mint, basil and oregano. I added some roared rye bread, salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, honey and oregano as a dressing... And thoroughly enjoyed the result!

I think you probably will too!


 

I have to admit... That is about as tasty as a salad could possibly look in my humble and infinitely modest opinion... Even if I DO say so myself! Lol!

 

Simply wash and dry the ingredients and then, cut the lettuce and greens into bite-sized pieces, and the rest into thin slices. There is no fussing to be done in this kind of dish... Rough and ready is good!


Quite simply arrange all of your ingredients in your serving dish, crumble the feta cheese on top, scatter generously with plenty of herbs and drizzle with olive oil. Squeeze the juice of a lemon directly on top and then sprinkle with some dried oregano to heighten the flavor. Add a drizzle of honey and season with salt and pepper.


Stir through and allow to sit for 10 minutes or so. This will give the salt time to begin drawing the juices out of the tomatoes and radishes and these in turn will combine with the oil, lemon juice and honey. All you need to do now is to stir it through once more so that the crusty bread soaks up some of that good flavor... And serve it up and enjoy!

 

And even though we aren't quite there just yet... I would say that this looks like a plate full of Summer! Right here and right now!

 

Ready in next to no time and very little effort indeed... I suggest you try this out soon! You never need wonder what to do with that old, stale bread again!

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