“Fahmis makit!” cried toddler M when we pulled up to the Saturday farmers market.
I am thrilled that she recognizes it. Our long-delayed, dearly-missed summer weather finally arrived in late July or so, and the Tacoma farmers markets have been overflowing with berries, peaches, zucchini, eggplant, green beans, corn. C loves the chocolate croissants from Grand Central’s stand on Thursdays. I love the apple baked empanadas on Saturdays. I’ve made a lot of blackberry jam because I realized that it’s hardest to find that flavor in stores. We’ve visited the farmers markets at least once or twice a week, for the last month and a half.
Here’s a recipe for my version of panzanella, my favorite way to celebrate summer salad. I’ve come to love panzanella because it’s one of the best ways to celebrate summer tomatoes. (And I’ve come to love it for the rarity: it’s just not worthwhile to make it when tomatoes are out of season.) This salad is meant to be a dinner salad, one that you can assemble in the salad bowl, toss, and then portion into two large sturdy bowls.
We may have had our last panzanella of the summer tonight. A new year of teaching has started for me; C is starting kindergarten on Thursday; it’s supposed to rain about an inch tomorrow in the Seattle area. Summer, we hardly knew you.
Recipe
This is probably not the most authentic recipe for panzanella (which is really supposed to be more of a bread salad than a bread-with-greens salad). It’s more of a deconstructed sandwich, maybe a caprese-style sandwich? But I make it almost every week during summer. You just have to eat fresh tomatoes in season.
Ingredients
- About 4-5 slices day-old crusty white bread (sourdough, levain, etc. have worked). This is a great way to use up the ends of artisan bread loaves.
- Olive oil (for brushing onto the bread slices)
- A garlic clove, cut in half and pierced with a fork (to rub onto the bread slices)
- 1-2 stems’ worth of fresh basil leaves (pinch off the hearty stems, then roll the larger leaves and cut into slivers)
- A large handful of washed and dried spring salad greens (spring is fine, arugula is peppery)
- About half a pint of ripe tomatoes, preferably cherry or heirloom, cut into bite-size pieces
- About 1/3 cup fresh mozzarella pieces (if using ovolini, halve or quarter; perlini are bite-size). Low-moisture skim mozzarella, the kind that most people buy for lasagna, will not taste as good in this case.
- Fresh Parmesan cheese, shaved, to taste.
- Dressing: about 1-2 T each of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and about 1-3 tsp. of brown sugar
- Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Method
- Make the garlic croutons. Brush the bread slices with olive oil, then rub them with that garlic clove pierced with a fork. (I use a fork so I won’t have to get too much garlic on my hands. You can leave out the fork and just rub the garlic on with your hands, if you want.)Put the slices into the toaster oven or very quickly under the broiler. Take the bread out before the slices turn golden brown, and cut them into bite-size pieces.
- Add the greens to the salad bowl. While the bread is toasting, cut the basil leaves into slivers. Add greens and basil.
- Throw in the cut tomatoes. Ideally, you want the tomato juices to mix with the croutons and coat the croutons, making them just a teeny bit soggy.
- Throw in the fresh mozzarella pieces.
- Shave the Parmesan over the salad, using a vegetable peeler. I really think that here is a place to be generous. Real Parmesan is expensive, but it adds so much flavor here. And it’s fun to use your fingers to chase that last fleck of Parmesan in the salad bowl.
- Using a fork, whisk together the dressing of olive oil, balsamic, sugar, and (optional) pepper. Add a bit of dressing to the greens, mix, and taste. Then add more dressing to the salad as needed.