Panzanella Toscana With Mozzarella
Our Tuscan-inspired Panzanella Salad is not an ordinary take-it-or-leave-it salad. It is vibrant with flavours of fresh vegetables, salty olives and tangy capers! It also makes use of some leftover bread that is going stale, which is perfect to soak up that olive oil-based dressing! If that's not enough to tempt you, we also added some pearl mozzarella to make this Italian classic one of the most enjoyable salads to have on a warm weekend day!
Ingredients
- 2 slices of bread
- 4 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 red onion thinly sliced
- 30 ml red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon caster sugar
- 250 g cherry tomatoes halved
- ½ cucumber (approx. 170g) sliced thinly into half circles
- 10 pitted black olives sliced
- 30 g capers
- 10 g basil chopped roughly
- 1 garlic clove minced/ crushed
- 125 g mozzarella pearls, mozzarella ball or burrata
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C Fan. Tear the slices of bread into bite-size pieces and spread them on a baking tray in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil, season with a generous pinch of salt and ½ teaspoon of dried thyme. Place the tray in a preheated oven for approx. 10 minutes until crispy and starting to brown.
- In the meantime, boil a kettle. Add the thinly sliced onion to a colander and pour over a full kettle of boiling water to mellow the flavour of red onion.
- Place the blanched red onions in a bowl. Add red wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt and set aside.
- To a large salad bowl, add the halved tomatoes, sliced olives, capers, basil and cucumber. Drain the sliced onions (reserving the liquid) and add to the salad too.
- To make the dressing, add crushed garlic, the remaining thyme and 2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to the reserved onion soaking liquid. Mix.
- Divide the salad between two bowls, add the crispy croutons, mozzarella pearls (or tear the mozzarella ball into bite-size pieces) and generously drizzle with the dressing. Grind some black pepper on top!
Nutrition
Calories: 454kcalCarbohydrates: 29gProtein: 20gFat: 30gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 49mgSodium: 1003mgPotassium: 593mgFiber: 4gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 1429IUVitamin C: 39mgCalcium: 415mgIron: 3mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!