Pepperoni Panzanella
Panzanella, or Italian bread salad, is a simple delight to make, it’s cubes of toasted bread mixed with a dressing and a bunch of other goodies for a versatile and delicious salad, and is a perfect way to use up day old or stale bread.
Today’s panzanella recipe is also simple, but gives it a fun twist with some crisp pepperoni, little mozzarella balls, multicolor cherry tomatoes and a quick dressing made from the juice from said tomatoes, almost making it taste like pepperoni pizza!
It’s the sort of salad that will get you to re-think what a salad can be.
Makes 4 servings
2 pounds ripe cherry tomatoes (multicolor if you can find them), cut into bite sized pieces
Salt
1/2 pound day old ciabatta or any rustic bread, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes (About 4 cups of bread cubes)
8 oz thinly sliced pepperoni, cut into bite-sized peices
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp dried basil
Freshly ground black pepper
8 oz fresh mozzarella pearls (Or bocconcini balls cut in half)
1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh basil leaves
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with foil.
Place the tomatoes into a strainer set over a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and leave that alone for at least 15 minutes, or until you can see juice pooling in the bowl below.
Lay the bread cubes onto the baking sheet, toss with oil, then sprinkle the chopped pepperoni on top. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the bread is toasted and the pepperoni is brown and crisp. Leave to cool while you make the dressing.
Remove the strainer that the tomatoes are in from the bowl their juice is in. To that juice, whisk in the vinegar, garlic, mustard, dried basil, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Then while constantly whisking, drizzle in the remaining 1/2 cup olive oil until you get a nice, stable dressing.
To that same bowl, toss in the bread, pepperoni, reserved tomatoes, mozzarella pearls, and fresh basil until combined. Taste and season to your liking, then put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, overnight would be best.
