Panzanella

Panzanella

Ingredients 

1 loaf of stale bread (were talking real bread here, not white sliced, ciabatta, county, crusty etc)

5-6 large tomatoes

1/2 onion (preferably red)

1/2 cucumber

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

2-3 cloves of garlic

9 tablespoons of olive oil (3 for the crutons, 6 for the salad)

4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (white wine vinegar if you have it)

1 tablespoon of capers (optional – sold at the foreign food mart and home-plus)

10-20 Basil leaves (use as many as your plant can muster)

A generous pinch of salt & pepper

Directions

Take your loaf of bread, preferably stale and break it into chunky bite sized pieces. Then drizzle with olive oil and garlic and fry in a pan or crunch them up in the oven until they are lightly browned. Meanwhile chop you tomatoes, cucumber,onion and peppers and put them in a bowl. Add the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, torn basil leaves and salt and pepper. Mix this thoroughly and add in the browned chucks of break, Stir the mixture and leave for an hour for all the flavors to seep into the bread. Serve when ready, ideally with wine. Voilà a deliciously different Italian salad.