Panzanella (Salad)

As a kid there were those popular 5 dishes that we used to carry often in our lunch boxes. One of them was - fodnicha pav (tempered Pav). Since Wibbs had made white bread such staple in Mumbai that Pav had become a delicacy in any form. Also, this was a time when Pav Bhaji was not made that often at home. So generally mom used to buy pav only to make this lovely snack for our tiffins the next morning. The leftover or day old pav used to give an amazing crunch. It was also an easy to make snack.


In Italy, I believe something similar must have happened that they invented this wonderful crusty salad.


Panzanella is a salad that uses all day old crusty bread and mixes it up with any vegetable that are tossed in olive oil dressing. Since there are no strong rules for decorating left overs, one can always be creative and discreet about what they wish to add to the salad.


Italian breads are very crusty (remember panini!) so they normally soak it in little water to soften it. If you are using any other form of bread then treat it the way you would like to have it. Since I used regular brown bread I toasted them.




Ingredients (For 3 people)
3 cups day old bread chunks (I used regular brown bread)
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 medium tomato finely chopped (deseeded)
1 capsicum finely chopped
2 tbsp Black Olives pitted and chopped (I used bottled)
1 tspn rinsed capers (Optional)
1 tspn garlic flakes 
1 tspn chilly flakes
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tspn White Vinegar (optional- I did not add)
3 tspn fresh basil finely chopped


Method
1) Toast the bread and cut in small cubes. Do not use butter.
2) In a bowl, mix the Oil, garlic flakes, chilly flakes , basil and vinegar.
3) Toss the vegetables and bread together and pour the dressing on top of it.


The end result is like eating a salad that reminds you of pizza. If you notice ,someone has flicked off the tomatoes in my salad (my todd!) so I added some ketchup which made it taste even better.



Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#9
Also linking this to Srivalli's Soups and Salad Mela

Comments

Gayathri Kumar said…
Salad looks so nice...
Priya Suresh said…
Quite an interesting salad,loving it..
Suma Gandlur said…
Healthy and interesting!
Rajani said…
Haven't heard about this one before. Should give it a try!
Mélange ! said…
Very interesting salad there.Refreshing idea !
Cool Lassi(e) said…
OOOO, this looks like my kind of salad! Cause I am a carb addict and I love eating carbs even in the name of "Salad"..Food for my brain! It goes crazy if I deny my body carbs!
Harini said…
Interesting Salad!!
Julie said…
Super tempting salad......delicious n innovative!!
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veena said…
Salad looks very delicious....very interesting too!!!!

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