Delicious Eats: Panzanella

Photo borrowed shamelessly from here

One problem about being married is that it is hard to eat all of our food. I try to buy fresh produce and real food (as opposed to just mac & cheese or something) but they always come in portion sizes that are too big for me and Owen to eat in a reasonable amount of time. Unless we like only ever ate lettuce or something. This leads to me being really sad about throwing away food that has spoiled or just has been sitting in the fridge for who-knows-how-long.

In my fridge the other night, I had half a bundle of almost-there asparagus, a bowl of stale rosemary french bread left over from fondue, and a tomato that probably has seen better days. What on earth could I made to use up all of these poor ingredients before it was too late?

Cue this awesome recipe. In the directions, the blogger said that you don't have to be too specific about the portions of each ingredient, so I definitely just used this as a template, especially since who the heck knows how many tomatoes is 400 g? My edits are in bold below, and even though I adapted it for two people and to what I have in my sad little kitchen, it turned out delicious! Definitely would recommend it for a lovely light summer dinner dish!

panzanella - bread salad with asparagus and salami

serves 4

400 g ripe tomatoes (I just used one tomato, and cut off the part that looked a little shabby)

250 g asparagus (half-ish a bundle)

100 g about 5 slices salami (genoa) (didn't have any salami on hand, and since she said that bacon or prosciutto would probably also work, I used very thinly sliced ham. Close enough!)

250 g bread like ciabatta, baguette or country bread (La Brea Bakery Rosemary & Olive Oil bread, totalllllly stale)

2 garlic clove (used already minced garlic, because it is always so much easier)

2 tablespoon olive oil for the pan

a bunch of scallions or chives (didn't have any, so I just skipped this part)

for the vinaigrette:

4 tablespoon balsamic or red wine vinegar (went with balsamic)

2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon dijon mustard (don't have any, so I just used regular mustard....)

1/2 teaspoon honey

sea salt and fresh ground black pepper (subbed kosher salt and lots of just regular old pepper instead)

Cut the bread in bite size chunks (about 2-3 cm / 1 inch). Peel the tough ends of the asparagus and cut off the bottom. Slice the salami in strips. Peel and dice the garlic and cut the scallions.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wide pan. Add the salami and cook until very crisp. Remove the salami chips from the pan and set aside on a paper towel. Add the asparagus to the same pan and sauté for 2-3 minutes then remove from the pan. Add the second tablespoon oil, preheat the oil to medium heat and add the bread. Cook, tossing frequently, for about 6 minutes. Add the garlic to the bread and cook for further 3 minutes. The garlic should not burn, lower the head if necessary. (Of course I wasn't paying attention, so the garlic did burn. Wasn't the end of the world though)

In a large bowl mix the tomatoes, asparagus, salami, bread with garlic and scallions. 

Make the vinaigrette and toss into the salad just before serving because the bread can get mushy after a while. (this is true! It also takes better served warm!)