Caprese Panzanella Salad

This salad is super fast, super easy, super beautiful, and super delicious. And, can you really ask for anything more than that when you’re looking for your perfect summer side dish? I don’t think so! So, let’s talk about how easily this comes together.

Let’s talk about panzanella salad, in general. Panzanella is a Tuscan bread salad that typically consisted of stale (or lightly toasted) bread, tomatoes, and some kind of onion then dressed in a light vinaigrette. You’d think that mixing bread with naturally wet ingredients would create a gloppy mess. But instead, the bread absorbs just enough of the salad’s juices to slightly soften it without losing the integrity of the crunchy bread. It’s magical deliciousness!

For our salad, we’re going to use some ciabatta bread. I like that ciabatta is a little heartier than some breads, so I think it’s the perfect choice for this salad. All we need to do is cube our bread into bite sized pieces, toss it with some olive oil, and pop it in the oven to become golden and toasty for just a few minutes.

While the bread cools, we can prep the rest of the salad. Caprese salads need 3 components: tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. And, that’s what we’re going to use. For the tomatoes, I like to use heirloom grape tomatoes. These are my favorite for two reasons: they come in a variety of beautiful colors and they have a perfectly sweet and delicious flavor. If you can’t find heirloom grape tomatoes (though they’re pretty readily available in grocery stores these days), you could use regular grape tomatoes.

For the cheese component of the salad, we’re going to dice up some fresh mozzarella. Now, you could use the baby mozzarella pearls for this recipe, but I liked having control over the size of the dice of my cheese. So, I bought a mozzarella ball and sliced it myself. Do whatever is easier for you!

Our final component is the basil dressing. And, you’ve seen this one before. That’s right! We’re dressing this salad in my infamous basil chive vinaigrette! This dressing is as simple as tossing some basil, chives, garlic, oil, and vinegar into a blender and zhooshing it up. Once the dressing is mixed, we’ll pour it straight in a big old bowl that’s already holding our bread, tomatoes, and cheese. Then we’ll toss it up, let it rest for a few minutes, and it’s ready to serve!

Nothing could taste like summer in a bowl more than this salad. The tomatoes are juicy and fresh. The dressing is light and bright. And, the crispy bread and creamy cheese are just like the icing on the cake.

Ok, everyone. I don’t think it really can get much better than a summery carb salad, so I can’t wait to hear what you think.

I hope you enjoy. And, let’s eat!