Panzanella crispy bread salad
Panzanella with fennel or green beans makes the perfect use of a stale ciabatta bread. If you add salami or smoked beef, you have the perfect lunch or dinner in a bowl. If you leave the cold meat out, the salad serves as a delicious side dish for your barbeque.
Ingredients
- 120 ml olive oil, divided 60:60 extra vergin
- 250 g ciabatta bread, one day old, cut or torn into 2 cm pieces
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 1 tsp fennel seeds crushed
- 1 large fennel bulb, cleand and thinly sliced
- 1 large handfull fresh wild rocket, cleaned
- 2 Tbsp white balsamico vinegar
- salt and pepper
- 150 g Italian salami or smoked beef
- 10 salt cured black olives
Instructions
- Heat 60 ml olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan.
- Add the fennel seeds and the ciabatta bread and slowly brown the bread. Don't rush this step, otherwise you end up with burnt bread. It should take around 10 min.
- Towards the end of the 10 minutes, add the garlic and stir.
- Take the bread off the heat and let it cool.
- For the dressing, combine the remaining olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
- Mix the dressing first with the fennel and rocket and then add all the other salad ingredients. Serve the salad immediately.
- TIP: Replace the fennel bulb with 200 g cooked green beans and the fennel seeds with some fresh thyme and some lemon zest.