Panzanella Salad

Panzanella Salad is the perfect side dish or light meal during summer. It uses leftover day-old bread, and cherry tomatoes in the starring roles. It takes only minutes to prepare, and by adding in tuna, grilled chicken strips would make a lovely dish for having some girlfriends over for lunch, or wedding /baby shower.

Feel free to be flexible on the ingredients. In this version I grabbed what I had on hand in the fridge. I will print the traditional recipe and also tell you my substitutions based on what I had on hand.

Panzanella Salad

Ingredients:

• 6 cups cubed day old bread (french or sour dough works best)
• 1/4 cup Olive Oil.
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 12-15 cherry or grape tomatoes cut in half
• 1 medium red skinned onion sliced very thin
• 6-12 fresh basil leaves torn or chopped small.
• Optional add in's: 
• Chopped cucumbers
• Fresh corn
• Mozzarella Cheese Shreds
• tuna, chicken

Jan's Substitutions: (I used 1/4 cup light basil/parmesan Italian Dressing for the olive oil , garlic and vinegar. I used a handful of chopped green onions for the red onions. I threw in a handful of leftover fresh corn, I tossed in a SMALL handful of shredded mozarella cheese)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 °. 
• Spread bread cubes on a baking sheet and lightly spray the cubes with non stick cooking spray, coating all sides.
• Toast 7-10 minutes until crispy.
• Remove from oven and let cool.
• While bread is toasting and cooling cut tomatoes in half (or bite sized pieces)
• Chop onions (and cucumbers if adding them in).
• Chop basil leaves.
• In small bowl stir together olive oil, vinegar and minced garlic, set aside
• In large bowl mix together all vegetables, and add in ingredients. 
• When bread is cool, lightly stir into the vegetable mixture.
• Lightly toss olive oil dressing into bread/tomatoes and mix together.
• Serve immediately.