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Recipe: Panzanella Salad

Panzanella Salad

Ingredients

Serves 4

For the Panzanella salad - croutons
4 thick slices of stale sourdough, 3 days old is ideal, torn into 3cm chunks
2 tbsp olive oil
½  tsp Sea salt
½ tsp herb de Provence, optional

For the salad and dressing
4-6 ripe tomatoes, diced seeds removed, heirloom are the best quality, 650g prepared weight, cut into fork sized chunks
½ red onion, finely diced
1 cucumber, 1 small or half large
200g prepared weight, cut into fork sized chunks
1 large bunch of fresh basil, torn or cut to chiffonade
Micro basil, optional to garnish
1 clove of crushed garlic
2 tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar, good quality will give the best results
60ml olive oil
1 tbsp runny honey
Seeds from your prepared tomatoes

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Method

Make the croutons:

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C fan-assisted oven.
  2. In a large bowl toss the torn bread with olive oil and salt, add the herbs de Provance if using.
  3. Spread the croutons on a baking tray and bake until golden and crisp, about 15 minutes. Turn the croutons halfway through baking to ensure they bake evenly.
  4. Prepare the tomatoes, slice them into quarters and remove the seeds. Do not discard the seeds, place them in a bowl to make the vinaigrette

For the dressing:

  1. To make the dressing add to the reserved bowl of tomato seeds, the crushed garlic, finely diced red onion, vinegar, olive oil and honey, mix together and season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve:

  1. Combine the croutons, vinaigrette, tomatoes and cucumber slices, add a generous amount of torn basil leaves, mix and allow to stand for 15 minutes to allow the croutons to soften a little
  2. To serve garnish with a few small basil leaves.

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