A Simple Bread Salad For Fiesta Friday #28
New Jersey’s finest fresh vegetables
I’ll be honest everyone, last week was rough for me. Not only was I extremely busy with work but I have to somehow balance demanding workload with 2 very sick senior dogs who are deteriorating despite my best efforts. According to my Vet he thinks Nando had a minor stroke, Izzy has had a very hard time breathing it seems only one lung is usable, the right side of her heart is enlarged, her trachea and bronchial stem have collapsed. They are also both diabetic. You have to know how much I love my dogs and would do anything to make hem happy and as comfortable as possible. I lacked inspiration to make anything substantial but did get a wonderful surprise via my friend who lives in New Jersey, it seems her neighbor a feisty Italian lady is quite the gardener and although I have never met her in person she picked these beautiful vegetables from her garden for me. There is a story behind her tomatoes, the seeds are from Italy and every year after she harvests the tomatoes she saves the seeds to propagate the species I guess you could say.
Although this salad is very simple and really does not require a recipe it is nonetheless very special. The vegetables are all from the sweet lady in New Jersey who each year lovingly saves the seeds so that the blood line will continue and the Italian tomato lives on year after year. So my offering for this Fiesta Friday hosted and lovingly put together each week by Angie@The Novice Gardener and our amazing co hosts Saucy@ Saucy Gander and Margot@Gather and Graze. If you had to do a double take, yes, Saucy and Margot agreed to stay on as co hosts a second week in a row. That Dame Edna just won’t leave the party, she really knows how to party hard.
Panzanella aka Italian Bread Salad
Some stale bread, a couple of days old is good cut into bite size pieces
Good juicy ripe tomatoes
Shallot
Cucumber
parsley and basil
toasted pine nuts (optional) I love them in the salad
salt and pepper
red wine vinegar and olive oil
Put the bread cubes in a big bowl, mix the tomato, shallot, cucumber with some vinegar and oil, salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the bread, add the chopped basil and parsley and pine nuts. Toss to combine and serve after letting it sit for about 30 minutes. The bread needs to soak up the juices of the tomatoes, vinegar and oil.
Panzanella
Fiesta Friday
apuginthekitchen 