Italian Bread Salad with a Twist
In these strange times of restricted movement and access to shops, it is always good to be able to make use of stuff that you might otherwise chuck out. Today we are looking at uses for stale bread!
Ribollita and Panzanella are two of my favourite Italian classics. Both are rustic and come from the famously fabulous Tuscan tradition of cookery. While Panzanella is a hearty summer bread-based 'salad', Ribollita is a hearty autumn/winter bread-based soup. I decided to do a fusion of the two and see how it turned out. Not too bad, I can report!
So, Panzanella is a way of using up stale bread - usually ciabatta, if you are in Italy. I hasten to add that by 'stale' I mean dry rather than moldy! Classically, you soften the bread with olive oil and red wine vinegar, and then add fresh tomatoes, red onion, garlic and basil. Ribollita, on the other hand, is essentially a broth-based soup of garden vegetables (notably kale) and white beans, thickened with old bread. The simple delights of both come, of course, from the quality and flavour of the basic ingredients - from the depth of flavour of the broth with the Ribollita, to the sweet, intense acidity of tomatoes ripened in the hot Tuscan sun with the Panzanella. Equally important in both is the quality of the olive oil used - green, soft and grassy is best - and, in the Panzanella, the quality of the pungent, peppery green notes of freshly picked Italian basil. In the case of the Panzanella, we also need to extend this 'quality control' to the bread. It will not work very well with an over-preserved supermarket bread like Mother's Pride! You will end up with a sloppy, tasteless mess. No, you need either some old ciabatta or sourdough, or at least a good quality white bread from the bakery section of the supermarket or shop. It needs a certain basic structure to be able to absorb the juices properly.
(And judging by the lack of flour in the supermarkets, a lot of you have taken to making your own bread!)
Ok, so all that is background. This is what I actually did:-
Ingredients
Dry bread
Tin of borlotti beans
Tin of basil and tomato soup (Morrison's 'The Best')
1 red pepper
Olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Fresh basil
Fresh chives
Dried Italian herbs
1 shallot
2 garlic cloves
Coarsely ground black pepper
Method
The whole idea came to me when I was clearing out the bread pin to be able to squeeze a newly bought loaf of brown bread into it. Rather than give the remains of the ciabatta and white loaf to the birds, I thought 'Aha! Panzanella!' Given the glorious sunny weather, we have been enjoying a lot of lunches 'alfresco', and this seemed the perfect solution for the following day's lunch.
So I took a strong bread knife and chopped up the bread (the ciabatta was like a bullet!) and put it in a large bowl. I sprinkled it all with generous amounts of good quality olive oil and red wine vinegar (the proportions will depend on the amount of bread you have, but use common sense. You don't want it swimming in it, but you do need enough to soften the very dry bread). Cover it and leave it overnight. Have a look at it in the morning and if it still doesn't seem quite soft enough, then add a little more oil and vinegar. I'd advise against using water at all as this just renders the bread tasteless and soggy. You need the flavours of the oil and vinegar within the bread.
Given that the ends of the ciabatta, having more crust, were still quite firm, I decided to add the tin of Tomato and Basil soup, stir it around to coat all the bread and then whizz the whole lot up in a food processor. Don't leave it so long that it becomes a paste or puree - just long enough to break up the largest chunks of bread.
Then tip the whole lot back into the original bowl and add a peeled and finely chopped shallot, two peeled and finely chopped fat garlic cloves, the drained can of borlotti beans and the relatively finely chopped red pepper. Then add a generous shake of dried Italian herbs, a generous shake of ground black pepper, a generous handful of chopped chives, a generous handful of chopped parsley and a generous handful of chopped (or preferably, torn) basil. Combine everything with a wooden spoon and transfer into a the serving dish. Check the flavors - add more of any of the ingredients if you think some of them are lacking - and then drizzle the whole bowl with more unctuous green olive oil and pop a sprig of the fresh basil on the top.
I served this with cured slices of bresaola, dressed with olive oil and parmesan shaves.
Enjoy the sunshine and may you all dream of Italy!
Notes
The above ingredients can all be added to or adjusted according to what you have in your fridge or store cupboard.
For example, if you have no tinned tomato and basil soup (plain tomato soup would probably work too as long as you had plenty of fresh basil), you may have some fresh soup in a carton or tub - so you could substitute that. Or you needn't use soup at all as this was just an idea I had to create a strong tomato flavour without using up all my tomatoes. You could even do a half-half scenario. If you do use fresh tomatoes, I'd advise cherry tomatoes as they have the strongest flavour. Cut them in half and sprinkle them with salt to let the juices run free so they are better absorbed by the bread. It may even work perfectly well with tinned tomatoes....just have a play around with flavours and textures.
If you don't have borlotti beans then any tinned Italian style beans will do - cannellini, black-eyed or mixed beans for example.
You could add some capers if you fancy a little more astringency. Chopped black olives are an option too.
Red onion would be traditional - I just didn't have one, so any type of onion you have to hand is fine. Fresh herbs such as oregano, thyme and rosemary can also be used.
Red, orange or yellow peppers can be used - but not green, as they're the wrong vibe. Traditional panzanella doesn't even have peppers in it, so if you have loads of fresh tomatoes, you don't have to worry about adding any peppers if you don't fancy them or don't have any.
Just go with the flow and what you have available!
Ribollita and Panzanella are two of my favourite Italian classics. Both are rustic and come from the famously fabulous Tuscan tradition of cookery. While Panzanella is a hearty summer bread-based 'salad', Ribollita is a hearty autumn/winter bread-based soup. I decided to do a fusion of the two and see how it turned out. Not too bad, I can report!
So, Panzanella is a way of using up stale bread - usually ciabatta, if you are in Italy. I hasten to add that by 'stale' I mean dry rather than moldy! Classically, you soften the bread with olive oil and red wine vinegar, and then add fresh tomatoes, red onion, garlic and basil. Ribollita, on the other hand, is essentially a broth-based soup of garden vegetables (notably kale) and white beans, thickened with old bread. The simple delights of both come, of course, from the quality and flavour of the basic ingredients - from the depth of flavour of the broth with the Ribollita, to the sweet, intense acidity of tomatoes ripened in the hot Tuscan sun with the Panzanella. Equally important in both is the quality of the olive oil used - green, soft and grassy is best - and, in the Panzanella, the quality of the pungent, peppery green notes of freshly picked Italian basil. In the case of the Panzanella, we also need to extend this 'quality control' to the bread. It will not work very well with an over-preserved supermarket bread like Mother's Pride! You will end up with a sloppy, tasteless mess. No, you need either some old ciabatta or sourdough, or at least a good quality white bread from the bakery section of the supermarket or shop. It needs a certain basic structure to be able to absorb the juices properly.
(And judging by the lack of flour in the supermarkets, a lot of you have taken to making your own bread!)
Ok, so all that is background. This is what I actually did:-
Ingredients
Dry bread
Tin of borlotti beans
Tin of basil and tomato soup (Morrison's 'The Best')
1 red pepper
Olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Fresh basil
Fresh chives
Dried Italian herbs
1 shallot
2 garlic cloves
Coarsely ground black pepper
Method
The whole idea came to me when I was clearing out the bread pin to be able to squeeze a newly bought loaf of brown bread into it. Rather than give the remains of the ciabatta and white loaf to the birds, I thought 'Aha! Panzanella!' Given the glorious sunny weather, we have been enjoying a lot of lunches 'alfresco', and this seemed the perfect solution for the following day's lunch.
So I took a strong bread knife and chopped up the bread (the ciabatta was like a bullet!) and put it in a large bowl. I sprinkled it all with generous amounts of good quality olive oil and red wine vinegar (the proportions will depend on the amount of bread you have, but use common sense. You don't want it swimming in it, but you do need enough to soften the very dry bread). Cover it and leave it overnight. Have a look at it in the morning and if it still doesn't seem quite soft enough, then add a little more oil and vinegar. I'd advise against using water at all as this just renders the bread tasteless and soggy. You need the flavours of the oil and vinegar within the bread.
Given that the ends of the ciabatta, having more crust, were still quite firm, I decided to add the tin of Tomato and Basil soup, stir it around to coat all the bread and then whizz the whole lot up in a food processor. Don't leave it so long that it becomes a paste or puree - just long enough to break up the largest chunks of bread.
Then tip the whole lot back into the original bowl and add a peeled and finely chopped shallot, two peeled and finely chopped fat garlic cloves, the drained can of borlotti beans and the relatively finely chopped red pepper. Then add a generous shake of dried Italian herbs, a generous shake of ground black pepper, a generous handful of chopped chives, a generous handful of chopped parsley and a generous handful of chopped (or preferably, torn) basil. Combine everything with a wooden spoon and transfer into a the serving dish. Check the flavors - add more of any of the ingredients if you think some of them are lacking - and then drizzle the whole bowl with more unctuous green olive oil and pop a sprig of the fresh basil on the top.
I served this with cured slices of bresaola, dressed with olive oil and parmesan shaves.
Enjoy the sunshine and may you all dream of Italy!
Notes
The above ingredients can all be added to or adjusted according to what you have in your fridge or store cupboard.
For example, if you have no tinned tomato and basil soup (plain tomato soup would probably work too as long as you had plenty of fresh basil), you may have some fresh soup in a carton or tub - so you could substitute that. Or you needn't use soup at all as this was just an idea I had to create a strong tomato flavour without using up all my tomatoes. You could even do a half-half scenario. If you do use fresh tomatoes, I'd advise cherry tomatoes as they have the strongest flavour. Cut them in half and sprinkle them with salt to let the juices run free so they are better absorbed by the bread. It may even work perfectly well with tinned tomatoes....just have a play around with flavours and textures.
If you don't have borlotti beans then any tinned Italian style beans will do - cannellini, black-eyed or mixed beans for example.
You could add some capers if you fancy a little more astringency. Chopped black olives are an option too.
Red onion would be traditional - I just didn't have one, so any type of onion you have to hand is fine. Fresh herbs such as oregano, thyme and rosemary can also be used.
Red, orange or yellow peppers can be used - but not green, as they're the wrong vibe. Traditional panzanella doesn't even have peppers in it, so if you have loads of fresh tomatoes, you don't have to worry about adding any peppers if you don't fancy them or don't have any.
Just go with the flow and what you have available!
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