This easy Panzanella salad recipe combines fresh flavors of farmers market vegetables with toasted bread and a red wine vinaigrette. A delightful dish!
Torn bits of toasted bread. Fresh tomatoes, corn, peppers, carrots, cucumbers, basil. A red wine vinaigrette. This salad is simple but comes together in the most extraordinary of ways.
And with many of these vegetables ripe at the farmers market and in gardens right now, this is the time to whip up Farmer’s Market Panzanella Salad.
You won’t be disappointed.
Panzanella salad is a Tuscan salad that traditionally uses stale bread, onions and tomatoes to soak up the vinaigrette. But in my version, I toast the bread to approximate staleness — ensuring that I don’t have to plan ahead too much to make this.
Bread doesn’t last long in our house.
And then I up the ante with more veggies, more flavor, more to love.
As you prepare for the weekend and Labor Day, find a good recipe for Grilled Chicken and put this Farmer’s Market Panzanella Salad on the menu.
Not into chicken? Serve it with shrimp or pork chops instead.
Then dig in, with family and friends, and savor the flavors — and the company. Here in Maine, our days of eating al fresco are coming to a swift end. So we have to enjoy every moment while we can — it’s practically a requirement.
One note: This is a salad to eat fresh. It’s best served not long after you make it. And while you certainly can store leftovers in an airtight container for another day, they won’t be as divine as they were that first day.
The days of summer vacation are winding down for my kids — just a few left now. But we’re going to enjoy as much as we can.
Farmer's Market Panzanella Salad
Fresh farmers market veggies and a zesty red wine vinaigrette come together in this easy recipe for Farmer's Market Panzanella Salad. Perfect for serving to guests — or with grilled chicken.
Ingredients
- 1 loaf French bread, torn into bite-size pieces (about 6 cups)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cups halved cherry and/or grape tomatoes
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 cucumber, peeled and diced
- ½ cup sliced fresh basil
- ⅓ cup diced red onion
- 2 ears corn, steamed
Vinaigrette:
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
- ½ tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tsp honey
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and arrange the bread pieces on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss well to coat. Bake for 4-6 minutes, until hot and just beginning to brown. Remove from the oven and cool.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss together the tomatoes, red bell pepper, carrots, cucumber, basil and red onion. Cut the kernels from the corn cobs, and add kernels to the mixture, tossing well to combine. Discard the cobs. Stir the cooled bread pieces into the mixture.
- Whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients and pour over the bread mixture. Toss well to combine. Let sit for 5 minutes and then stir again. Enjoy.
Kate
Friday 30th of August 2019
I'm definitely trying to make the most of these last days of summer. We've been having salads every night with dinner!