Panzanella Salad

Panzanella Salad: It looks like bread, but its called a salad so it must be healthy.

These days, I am learning to bake, and that involves a fairly steep learning curve.  If you've never baked anything except cookies or brownies from a box, I can't say that I blame you. That was the extent of my baking knowledge just a few weeks ago.  Since then, I've attempted a lot of baking: biscuits, cupcakes, dinner rolls, hamburger buns, baguettes.  You name it, I've tried it.  The only things that have been successful so far are the cupcakes, the pretzels, and the grapefruit quick breads (ie the desserts, I must pay special attention to those).

All this failure, I hope, is paving the path to a glorious baking career, but until then, I have an overwhelming amount of mediocre bread.  I don't want all of this to go to waste, so here is a list of five things that I've made with mediocre bread that will make your mouth do the happy dance.

1. Croutons
2. Egg Bake
3. Stuffed French Toast
4. Bread Pudding
5. Panzanella Salad!

A lot of people don't know about Panzanella salad, probably due to the overwhelming popularity of Paleo diets and not becoming fat.  Panzanella salad is not healthy at all, but it is extremely delicious.  The sweetness of the bread contrasts perfectly with the lively acidity of the lemon balsamic dressing.  The bread soaks up this dressing and then mingles with the bright notes tomatoes, cilantro, feta and green onions.  Mediocre bread no more, this salad will rock your face off.

Panzanella Salad

by Hannah Rounds

Recycle old bread into a delicious flavor explosion

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 40 mins Yield: 6 Reasonable Servings

Ingredients

• 1 Baguette chopped into crouton sized pieces
• 1/2 Lemon Lemon Juice
• 2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vineagar
• 3 Tablespoons (increase if you prefer less acidic dressings) Olive Oil
• 1 Teaspoon Italian Seasoning
• 1.5 Teaspoons Sugar
• 1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1/2 Pint Grape Tomatoes Halved
• 2-3 Green Onion Chopped
• 1/4 Bunch Cilantro Chopped
• 2 Ounces Feta

Instructions

1. Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, Italian seasoning, sugar, and garlic powder. Test to ensure the dressing is to your liking. Adjust proportions as needed 2. Pour dressing over bread and allow bread to marinate for at least 30 minutes but no more than 2 hours 3. Add tomatoes, feta, cilantro and green onions and serve. 4. Leftovers are pretty good for about 1-2 days.