When you live with someone that doesn’t eat lettuce, you don’t often find salad on the home dinner menu.  That is unless you trick them into eating fancy Italian bread salad.  Panzanella salad is an easy to make dish and most of it can be prepared ahead of time. 

Its not very photogenic, but it certainly tastes good.

Panzanella Salad
1 Loaf Italian Bread
1 lb. cherry tomatoes
1 lb. fresh mozzarella cheese
6 oz. bacon, chopped
3/4  C olive oil
1/2 C balsamic vinegar
2 T brown mustard
2 T Italian seasoning
Salt
Pepper

Preparations is key
Like most salads, all of the work for this Panzanella salad is in the preparation.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Start by cooking the bacon in a frying pan until crisp and delicious.  While it is filling your house with the beautiful aroma of melting pig fat, take the loaf of Italian bread and chop it into 1-2 inch cubes.  Think croutons. Place the cubes in a large bowl.

Once your bacon is finished rendering, pull out the bacon pieces and set on a paper towel.  Now you see all that fantastic liquid left in the pan where you cooked the bacon, pour that over the bread cubes and toss.  Be careful that its not too hot as cooking is much less enjoyable without skin.  Depending how much fat your bacon generated you may want to add some olive oil to the bread at this time, each piece should be lightly coated.  If you’d like, you can add some Italian herbs and spices at this time to the bread.  I generally use an Italian blend of dried herbs.  Toss to coat and lay out on a foil lined cookie sheet.  Transfer to oven and cook until just barely browned.

While your bread is cooking you can practice your knife skills by taking apart some cherry tomatoes and slicing some fresh mozzarella cheese.  Nothing too fancy, big pieces work as this salad should look rustic.  If you’d like to, you can also make your dressing.

I use a very simple balsamic vinaigrette for mine, but its your tastebuds that you have to answer to, not mine.  My dressing consists of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, brown mustard, salt and pepper.  Because I’m lazy I throw it all in a blender and let it do its thing, but you can whisk the hell out of it if that type of thing interests you.

Putting it all together
Now this part doesn’t take a genius to figure out, but you need to get yourself a big salad bowl and mix everything together except the dressing.  Toss in the bread, bacon, mozzarella, and tomatoes, turning to combine.  Try not to crush the bread.  I like to put my dressing on right before serving so that I get a combination of textures, but some people like their Panzanella salads to be completely soggy.  To each their own.

That’s why you can’t throw rice anymore
You can’t throw rice anymore at weddings because birds eat it and their stomach expands when it gets hydrated, then it explodes.  Although that really is just an urban legend, you’re going to wonder about it after eating this salad.  It is so delicious, you will have a couple of helpings and it doesn’t take up too much room right away, but give it an hour and you’ll be paralyzed on your couch.  So, boys and girls, remember: Moderation is key.