Ramona over at The Houndstooth Gourmet is having a little “You say tomato, I say tomahto” contest to celebrate the abundance of tomatoes in all of our gardens right now. This is one of my absolute favorite recipes… EVER. If you’ve never had Tomato Bread Salad, you must must must try this… You’ll be hooked… But be warned, it’s only incredible when you use the ripest, freshest tomatoes right out of the garden (or farmer’s market)
And the other secret to a great Tomato Bread Salad is you can’t be shy with the olive oil – and use a good olive oil as the simplicity of the ingredients really warrants the best in each of the ingredients.
Tomato Bread Salad (aka Panzanella)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2lbs ripe tomatoes, hacked into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
6 basil leaves, shredded
1 loaf day old French bread (baguette works well too!)
sea salt to taste
fresh ground pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut bread into about 1 inch cubes. Toss with olive oil and garlic. Place on a baking sheet and cook until gold brown and slightly crunchy on the outside. Remove from oven and immediately toss in a large bowl with remaining ingredients. Another key is to get as much of the tomato water into the bowl with the bread, as it’s so delicious when the olive oil soaked bread absorbs the juice from the tomato. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
Enjoy!
2 Comments
September 23, 2008 at 10:25 am
[...] our next entry can. Sarah from The District Domestic (Washington, DC) did just that when she made “Tomato Bread Salad (aka Panzanella). Here, Sarah toasts the bread in the oven, and the tomato juice is collected in the bowl and [...]
September 23, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Those tomatoes are gorgeous. It doesn’t look like end of summer!