Panzanella - A Quick and Tasty Summer Salad

July and August mean hot weather and cool food. After all, who wants to work in a hot kitchen in the heat of summer? One of the best summer salads is the classic Italian dish panzanella. This dish, based on tomatoes and left-over bread, has several variations. Italian cookbook author Marcella Hazan adds anchovies and capers; some versions add roasted pepper; in some, bread is toasted and cubed; and in Lucca, the bread is often soaked and quite mushy.  

I prefer a simple panzanella with four main ingredients - ripe tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and cubes of toasted bread with a dressing of red wine vinegar and good olive oil, salt and pepper. If I have fresh basi, I will add some of that as well.  

The panzanella goes well with grilled steaks.

That’s it! Easy, fresh, tasty.  

When visiting my family in New Mexico, and missing Italian food, I decided to make a panzanella salad, along with an olive oil and herb-based potato salad (Ina Garten’s French potato salad) to serve alongside grilled steaks.  

A mash-up of Italian, French, and American dishes and great backyard barbecue food. 

To make the panzanella salad, you’ll need:: 

Ripe tomatoes, medium dice, to equal about 2 cups (save any juices that escape during chopping)

I English cucumber, seeded, small to medium dice

I/4 of a medium red onion, diced small

3 tablespoons good red wine vinegar

5 tablespoons good olive oil  (Italian is best!)

Salt and pepper to taste (I like French gray sea salt and coarse group pepper)

3 slices of firm rustic bread, toasted

1 large clove of fresh garlic, peeled and sliced in half

A few fresh basil leaves

Rubbing the hot toasted bread with fresh garlic really adds flavor.

Marinate the diced tomatoes (with any juices), cucumbers, and onion in the vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper for 45 minutes to an hour. 

Toast the bread and rub with the cut edge of the garlic. Cut into medium cubes and add to the marinated tomatoes 10 to 15 minutes before serving. The bread will be soft, having absorbed some of the juices, but still a bit firm.  

If you prefer the bread a bit squishier, add it a little sooner. I prefer firmer bread, and yet find myself picking out those squishy bits when they are left in the bowl at the end of the meal.

-post by Joanne

A Farewell Luncheon (and a Recipe for Farro Salad)

Moving to Italy is something that I daydream about all the time. I haven’t yet managed it, but that is not the case for my friends Jim and Rod. After many trips to Italy, and two recent trips to Lucca, they have decided to make the big move. On their latest trip, they rented an apartment just steps outside of Lucca’s walls in a quiet neighborhood (giving me a bad case of apartment envy, not to mention envy of their two gorgeous balconies). Then they came home to New Mexico, sold their house, gave up years of collected belongings, and packed their essentials. How exciting is that?

Recently, I had Rod and Jim over for a going-away lunch. It is quite hot in New Mexico at this time of year, so I fixed an Italian-inspired lunch that involved little actual cooking. On the menu was a cold farro salad with shrimp (more about farro in a minute), sliced tomatoes with burrata (topped with basil, salt, and olive oil), and a simple bruschetta of bread topped with olive oil and salt. The wine was a Gavi, my favorite light Italian white, perfect for a hot summer day. Dessert came from Whole Foods and wasn’t the least bit Italian – Key lime tartlets.

Whole grain farro

Are you familiar with farro? It’s an ancient form of wheat; some say it is the grain from which all modern wheats are descended.  Farro is an important part of the Lucchese culinary tradition, found mostly in soups that also feature beans or vegetables. 

Farro is high in fiber, has good protein and vitamin content, and is lower in gluten than modern wheat. Farro can be found in three forms: whole grain, semi-pearled (polished to remove some of the tougher outer husk) and pearled (all the husk polished away). The form influences both nutritional value (highest in the whole grain) and cooking time (quicker with pearled forms). I tend to use the semi-pearled variety when I can find it, but also like the whole grain, which maintains a chewier texture even after the longer cooking time.

The farro salad that I make uses a base of 1 ½ cups uncooked farro, covered in water (about 3 ½ cups but the exact amount isn’t critical – just cover the farro at least 1 inch deep and drain off any extra water at the end of cooking), and ½ tsp salt. Bring to a boil, turn heat down to simmer, and cook until tender.  Cooking time varies depending on type of farro used and altitude. I live at about 5,000 feet; my whole grain farro took about an hour. Pearled farro can cook in as little as 20 to 30 minutes. If using whole grain, the cooking time is shorter if it is soaked overnight before cooking. When done, drain off any extra water and cool the farro before preparing the salad.

To make the salad, add the following to the cooked and cooled farro and toss:

½ of an English cucumber, seeded and cut into small cubes

1/3 c. finely diced red onion

4-5 oz. of crumbled feta cheese

¾ tsp coarsely ground black pepper

½ - 1 tsp sea salt (I use Penzey’s French Gray Sea Salt)

5 tbl. fresh lemon juice

5 tbl. good olive oil

Mix together and chill for an hour or two before serving.

The farro salad goes well with steamed shrimp, 1 to 1.5 pounds marinated several hours in 4 tbl olive oil, 4 tbl fresh lemon juice, 1 tbl chopped fresh mint leaves, and ½ tsp coarsely ground pepper. Sprinkle with sea salt before serving.

After a wonderful lunch, I'm sending Jim and Rod off on their Italian adventure with big hugs and a “Ci vediamo a Lucca in Settembre” (see you in Lucca in September).  

They've even promised to cook for me in their new kitchen.

-post by JMB