Pan­zanella

Tyler Florence’s recipe is vague about the amount of olive oil in the dress­ing. He sug­gested I “eye­ball it” – feel free to use less. If the bread has a thick crust, remove some or all of it.

Dress­ing:
2 gar­lic cloves
3 anchovy fil­lets
¼ tsp each: kosher salt and freshly ground black pep­per
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tbsp red wine vine­gar
¹⁄₃ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp capers, drained (optional)

Salad:
About ½ loaf Ital­ian bread, torn into bite-size pieces (8 to 10 cups)
¼ cup extra vir­gin olive oil
2 roasted red bell pep­pers, cut in pieces *
1 pint (about 2 cups) cherry or grape toma­toes
½ small red onion, chopped
1 eng­lish cucum­ber, peeled, cut in ½-inch/1-cm cubes
½ cup fresh basil leaves, torn in pieces
¹⁄₄ cup cel­ery leaves, torn in pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pep­per to taste

Pre­heat oven to 400F.

For dress­ing, finely chop gar­lic, anchovy fil­lets, salt and pep­per together on cut­ting board, then mash with side of large knife. Trans­fer to small bowl; whisk in lemon juice, vine­gar and olive oil. Stir in capers, if using.

Place bread pieces in large bowl. Toss with olive oil. Spread on bak­ing sheet(s) in sin­gle layer. Bake in oven until crisp and begin­ning to brown, about 10 minutes.

In large bowl, com­bine remain­ing ingre­di­ents. Add dress­ing; toss to coat. Just before serv­ing, adding toasted bread; toss together. Taste; add salt and pep­per if necessary.

Makes about 6 side-dish servings.

* To roast pep­pers, brush with olive oil and sprin­kle with salt and pep­per. Place on bar­be­cue grill over medium-high heat or on bak­ing sheet under oven broiler and roast about 10 min­utes, turn­ing at inter­vals, until charred and blis­tered all over. Place in bowl; cover with plas­tic wrap and let sit about 10 min­utes. Remove seeds and cores; peel off skin.

Back to Recipes