Mid-Summer Panzanella Italian Bread Salad for a Hot Day

Panzanella Bread Salad

Hot, humid, and ninety five degrees. heat thunder in the air and the fan going full force. Needless to say you are not thinking of food your thinking of surviving the day.

All day you are drinking water, soda, or whatever you usually drink to keep hydrated but then the inevitable happens and you begin feeling hungry despite the heat.

The challenge is what to make that is easy, fillings and something good to eat on a day like this.

This is my favorite hot weather go to dinner

Italian bread salad  called Panzanella from Tuscany that dates back almost a thousand years.

This is how it’s made:

Panzanella Bread Salad

Ingredients

·        1/4 clove garlic (chop after rubbing bowl)

·        1/4 (1 pound) loaf Italian bread (bread should be left out to get stale or toasted)

·        1/4 cup chopped tomatoes or grape tomatoes

·        1/4 cup cucumber - peeled, seeded and chopped

·        1/4 cup chopped red onion

·        1/4 clove garlic, minced

·        1/4 teas of basil & thyme (can be purchased at the dollar store) 

i    if possible use fresh basil. I am growing some in my herb garden.

            1 tablespoon olive oil

·        1- teaspoons balsamic vinegar

·         

Directions

1. Rub a peeled clove of garlic around a wooden salad bowl.

2.  Pull apart or chop the bread into bite-size pieces.

 In the prepared salad bowl, combine the bread, tomatoes,     cucumbers, and red onions

        3.   Mix herbs & garlic together with the balsamic vinegar & olive     oil and pour over salad

*It's now ready to eat

This makes an easy and wonderful warm weather meal and is very satisfying.

You can add whatever vegetables you enjoy in your salad and adjust the herbs to your taste.

This is about you and what you enjoy. It is also about surviving a really hot day and eating well on a budget.

This meal will take care of both of these goals.

Enjoy!

After writing this article I went shopping at Aldies and at the Yankee Dollar.

At Aldies I got the veggies for the salad and found an interesting hard Mexican cheese. 

Then I went to the Yankee Dollar and got some red wine and white wine vinegar. 

When I made this salad which took maybe five minutes I did use all the items listed in the recipe but added some mushrooms I had left in the vegetable drawer and of course chopped up some of the cheese.

I didn't have any stale bread so I cut up two hot dog rolls to leave out and get stale for later when I add it to the salad.

The dressing I made was half white wine vinegar and half olive oil. I didn't bother measuring any herbs I grated some pepper also from the Yankee Dollar and then some mixed salad herbs, also in a grater I had bought last week at the Dollar tree.

Then poured over the vegetables in the salad. Later I will add the bread. 

I though you would enjoy knowing where to find some of these things and be able to save money.

But then that’s the idea right?

Once again enjoy your day and your salad.