...
...
...
...
SSL
All site content, including photos, © Busy-at-Home 2009-2013, All Rights Reserved, Contact Busy-at-Home for permissions
There is NOTHING “classic” about my panzanella. If you’re hoping for a traditional, made-like-a-little-Italian grandmother, panzanella, this won’t be your recipe. But, if you are looking for out-of-this-world delicious, incredibly simple and quick to prepare for a homey get-together with family or friends, you just hit the jackpot! Classic panzanella is all about the bread [...]
There is NOTHING “classic” about my panzanella. If you’re hoping for a traditional, made-like-a-little-Italian grandmother, panzanella, this won’t be your recipe. But, if you are looking for out-of-this-world delicious, incredibly simple and quick to prepare for a homey get-together with family or friends, you just hit the jackpot!
Simple and incredibly delicious. I served this panzanella over fresh greens from my garden. Absolute heaven with my O Garlic Olive Oil and White Balsamic vinaigrette.
Classic panzanella is all about the bread and a fabulous vinaigrette to dress it. Panzanella is made from chunks of hearty, chewy bread (usually day old or stale) mixed with variations of fresh vegetables, herbs, mozzarella or even olives and tossed with an olive oil and vinegar dressing. The exact ingredients and variety of bread seem to vary by region, in Italy. When I prepare it, the bread is still the main ingredient, but I’m more than just a little picky about how I get that bread ready to be salad.
Bread, dipped in delicious vinaigrettes made with high quality olive oils and vinegars from O Olive Oil, is sublime. But soggy, mushy bread, no matter how perfect the flavor, is a huge textural problem for me. I just can’t do it. So, the bread needs to be prepared to absorb flavor and still retain it’s texture – toasted and crusty outside, soft and wonderful inside. This recipe allows me to do just that and enjoy delicious panzanella, albeit a slightly less than conventional version. I think you’re going to love it!
This is where that experience of reclining in the quiet of the day, near the center of a shady olive grove, after strolling through fragrant vineyards begins. Once you've experienced the delicious journey of O Olive Oil and Vinegars, you'll want to visit, again and again ! Mmm...hmmmm....This is good!
You’ll remember that I shared my first taste of O Olive Oils and Vinegars with you, just a few short days ago; and we took a little journey through the Italy in my mind. :) We talked about the recipe contest being sponsored by eRecipeCards.com and O Olive Oil; and how you would be able to give me a boost with my contest entry, soon. If you haven’t done it, yet, I hope you’ll stop by eRecipeCards.com and register for your own free recipe box. You’ll be able to save a personal file of fabulous recipes from bloggers all around the net; and more than that, you’ll be able to vote for my recipe in this contest, Rustic Panzanella, by adding it to your recipe box. You can read more about the contest and entries, as well as discover all the uniquely delicious products O has to offer, by following them on Facebook.
I actually struggled with the decision to enter this recipe. I created two extraordinary dishes with the O Roasted Garlic Olive Oil I reviewed (I’ll definitely be sharing the second, a bit later.). Which to enter? It was hard to decide. I even noticed, this evening, that one of the other entrants posted a panzanella recipe on the erecipecards.com site, just before mine. Great minds think alike, I guess! But, my version is different enough, that I think it will have great appeal to a wide audience, who may have never tried panzanella before, or perhaps thought they wouldn’t like it. The point of this contest is to showcase O Olive Oils and Vinegars and make them the star of the dish. That’s why I’m making Rustic Panzanella my official entry. O Roasted Garlic Olive Oil and O White Balsamic Vinegar meld into a blissfully flavorful vinaigrette. :) So, let’s go strolling, again, and enjoy the tranquility of shady olive groves and fragrant vineyards, right at our own kitchen tables!
.
Ingredients
- 1 loaf French or Italian Bread, (day old is not only fine, but best)
- 2 - 3 Tablespoons O Roasted Garlic Olive Oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 3 pints cherry or grape tomatoes
- 2 cucumbers
- 1 small red onion
- fresh salad greens (I used Tango lettuce, Red Romaine and spinach, all fresh from our garden.)
- 2/3 cup O Roasted Garlic Olive Oil
- 1/2 cup O White Balsamic Vinegar
For the Salad
For the Vinaigrette
Instructions
- Roughly cut or tear the loaf of bread into large, but bite-sized, chunks.
- Toss the bread with 2-3 Tablespoons of O Garlic Olive Oil until the bread pieces are evenly coated.
- Sprinkle the bread with salt and toss again, to distribute it evenly.
- At this point you have a couple options. You can toast the bread chunks in a cast iron skillet on your cook top (which is what I did) OR you can spread them evenly on a cookie sheet and bake them at 425 degrees to brown and toast them, turning them about 1/2 way through the process (which is what I will do, in the future.) Because I used an entire loaf of bread, the skillet was full and it was difficult to get all the pieces evenly browned. In the oven they will toast evenly, and have more uniformly toasted, and crisp outer crusts. So, it's more a matter of texture preference. In the skillet, your bread will have more uncrisped edges that will absorb vinaigrette quickly, resulting in super soft or even soggy bread. In the oven, at high heat, you will be able to quickly toast the outsides of your bread cubes, while leaving the centers soft, chewy and amazing! :) Just sayin'.
- While your bread is toasting, you can chop the vegetables for your salad.
- Wash and drain the tomatoes. I used cherry (or grape) tomatoes. You could certainly chop full-sized tomatoes, but I like the look, sweetness and texture of the cherry tomatoes, in this salad. I sliced about 1/3 of them in half, more for looks, than taste.
- Dice the onion fine. Traditional panzanella uses rings, or large strips, of red onion; which I adore, but won't make it past a couple of our kids. Diced fine, they rarely notice them, but left in rings, they would pick them out and waste them, so of course, I diced them for my panzanella. Also, my onion was on the larger side, so I only used about 1/2 cup.
- Peel and dice the cucumbers.
- Mix all the vegetables in a large salad bowl and toss with the toasted bread and black pepper.
- Whisk together 2/3 cup garlic olive oil and 1/2 cup white balsamic. (You could add herbs, but I so love this oil and vinegar combination, that I wanted it to shine through as the dominant flavor. The mellow hint of garlic in the buttery olive oil is so incredible combined with the sweet bite of the white balsamic. That's the full, rich flavor I was longing for, so nothing else was required.
- Drizzle 1/2 the vinaigrette over the salad and toss to coat. Then allow it to chill in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes. This is where I really stray from traditional panzanella. Typically, it would set for hours to let the bread absorb all the dressing. I wanted to give mine time for the vinaigrette to cling to every lovely piece of crusty bread, but not so much time that the bread lost its gorgeous texture. 20-30 minutes was perfect for us.
- Serve this delicious salad as a lunch or as a side dish. It will be raved over in either instance. The first night I served it as a side to a yummy spaghetti casserole. It was a delectable lunch, all on its own, the next day.
- Arrange a bed of fresh greens on a salad plate and top with your marinated panzanella. Serve it with the reserved dressing available for additional drizzling, if needed.
- So delicious. So comforting and hearty. This is a simple and easy dish that will taste like a warm welcome to everyone fortunate enough to share it in your home. Enjoy!
Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by ZipList Recipe Plugin
http://busy-at-home.com/blog/rustic-panzanella-my-entry-in-the-o-olive-oil-and-vinegars-recipe-contest/I received a bottle of O Roasted Garlic Olive Oil and a bottle of O White Balsamic Vinegar in order to test them in my own kitchen and collect information for this review. Additionally, I used them to create a recipe for a contest, where I could potentially win other O Olive Oil products. No monetary compensation was received for this review and a positive review was not required. As with all Busy-at-Home reviews, the views and opinions expressed are wholly my own, and based on my personal experience with the product.
Sometimes flavors can be so full, so rich, so fabulously unique that your mind transports you to a place that you associate with those tastes and aromas. I had that experience, this week, and the journey was magnificent, as well as a surprise. I’ve never been to Italy, though I would love to visit there. [...]
Sometimes flavors can be so full, so rich, so fabulously unique that your mind transports you to a place that you associate with those tastes and aromas. I had that experience, this week, and the journey was magnificent, as well as a surprise. I’ve never been to Italy, though I would love to visit there. Most of my ideas and imaginings about it have been fueled by movies, books and television, so maybe it would be nothing like I imagine, anyway. But, I have visions of rolling hills and old stone cottages, lush green olive groves to shade and cool me in the heat of the day and miles and miles of vineyards. Accurate or not, that’s my vision and it’s where I go when I am treated to an exceptionally delicious dish, or food, that I particularly associate with Italian flavors. So, imagine my surprise when I made this delectable journey, only to find that the ingredients that sent me there are created in the sunny, wine country of California! Mmm….hmmm….I went to Italy in California. Holy GPS Error, Batman!
This is a "Natural Box", containing O Roasted Garlic Olive Oil and O White Balsamic Vinegar. I received it to test the products in my kitchen and create a recipe for the contest. Aren't the bottles gorgeous?!
O Olive Oil is perfectly located, in northern California, where they hand-harvest ripe Mission olives in the foothills of the Sierra mountains. They work alongside the owners of small, family farms to select the best pesticide-free, black, reddish purple and green olives for their pressed oils; and in keeping with their commitment to quality, rush them to the press where they are crushed within 48 hours of harvesting. O also produces their delectable wine vinegars and balsamic vinegars from the fine grapes produced in the Napa Valley. I’m excited about their commitment to age-old organic processes and techniques, while using the best American-grown olives and grapes, to create and meld these sun-kissed flavors in their high-quality olive oil and vinegars!
It is my great fortune to have been selected to test, and create a recipe with, two exquisite O Olive Oil products — their California Roasted Garlic Olive Oil and their California White Balsamic Vinegar. O has partnered with eRecipeCards.com to sponsor a recipe contest, with 24 bloggers competing. I’m so excited and honored to be part of it!
If you’ve never visited eRecipe cards.com before, you need to head right over there and sign-up for your own free eRecipeBox! The site is loaded with thousands of fantastic recipes, posted by bloggers from all around the web. They have an easy to use search feature that lets you find exactly what you’re looking for. Search by Ingredient, Title or Blogger. Save the recipes you love into your own personal eRecipe Box and retrieve them quickly and easily, on future visits. Plus, later in this fun recipe competition, with O Olive Oil and Vinegars, you’ll be able to vote for my recipe, by adding it to your eRecipe Box. It’s going to be AWESOME!!! Just sayin’. 
What appealed to me, first, about O Olive Oils, is that they are never infused or blended with extracts and seasonings, after the fact. The olives are cold-pressed and crushed along with whole fruit (clementines, oranges, Meyer lemons, figs etc.), within 48 hours of picking, to maximize the flavor of the blend being created. The true flavors of the olives and the fruit are melded in the pressing; and create a unique and powerful taste experience that you won’t get in other olive oils. The oil I’m reviewing is garlic oil and not citrus, but like all O Olive Oils, the ingredient list is minimally marvelous — Mission olives, kettle-roasted garlic — that’s it! Flavor and then MORE flavor! Simple, pure and delicious !
The bottles are lovely and elegant (and glass, NOT plastic) and honestly, don't they just scream, "Drink me!" -lol- I've never wanted to do that with olive oil or vinegar, before. Take my word for it, you could with these!
Today, I want to introduce you to the two products, I personally, have been testing and will be working with for the contest.
1. O Roasted Garlic Olive Oil: What a fabulous combination! Olive oil and garlic are both so good for you and to merge them into one, is absolute genius! When I pulled the cork (yup, a cork – no screw tops) from the top of this bottle I was immediately greeted by the fragrance of the roasted garlic and the “sweet” smell of the olives.
Never before, would I have considered using the words “sweet” and “olive” in the same sentence, but it’s there, an almost fruity smell, that comes blended with the aroma of smoky, roasted garlic. Tasting it, I get the same subtle hint of roasted garlic, not overpowering, but the first sensation on my palate; and then just as you think that the garlic will be the only taste, there is the lingering taste of the Mission olive. This delicious olive oil is light, and yet, still has an almost buttery richness. Fabulous!
2. O White Balsamic Vinegar: Balsamic vinegars are different than wine vinegars. While wine vinegars are prepared from fermented wine, balsamics are made from grape pressings that have never been fermented to become wine. The aroma of O’s White Balsamic (also corked) is at once vinegar, but then quickly reminiscent of a sweet wine. It has to be the grapes, a combination of muscat and malvasia. It’s color is pale gold and the flavor, like the scent, has that same heady “bite” of vinegar, married with the sweetness of the grapes. It’s light and crisp, incredibly robust and flavorful! It is the perfect level of acidity to accompany the buttery richness of O Roasted Garlic Olive Oil, and for purposes of my initial taste-test, I just couldn’t get enough!
I started my review of the olive oil and balsamic with the simplest of taste-tests. To be sure I got nothing but the flavor, aroma and textures of the products, I used them to dip pieces of French bread. If you do this, be sure you bake or buy two loaves. You will NOT want to share with just anyone! Because, this is where that experience of reclining in the quiet of the day, near the center of a shady olive grove, after strolling through fragrant vineyards kicks in; and you only share that with someone extraordinary! Mmm...hmmmm....This is good!
I ate bread dipped in just O Roasted Garlic Olive Oil; and then I ate bread dipped in only O White Balsamic Vinegar; and THEN purely for scientific testing and research, I ate bread dipped in the two mixed together. Ambrosia! I literally wiped every last drop from the bowl and restrained myself from polishing off the whole loaf and both bottles! How can something, not chocolate, be so decadent?
I definitely love these products! In the interest of full disclosure, I have to tell you the tasting testing, mentioned in the picture above, has not been my only time delving into these delicious products. As a matter of fact, lunchtime, snack time, pretty much any time has been enough of an excuse for me to sample them, again. I need to complete my recipe contest entry and photos, very soon, or my “testing” will send me running to the market for new bottles!
By visiting the O Olive Oil Facebook page, I learned that their products will be on sale in most Whole Foods stores throughout the month of June; so, this would be a great time to grab a bottle, or two, or six. I also picked up some great tips and recipe ideas on the Facebook page. One day soon, you’ll see my recipe creation posted there. I can’t wait to share it with you!
So where’s the last place that some incredible flavor has transported YOU??!! I’d love to hear about it and to know what food inspired your perfect “dream-away”!
I received a bottle of O Roasted Garlic Olive Oil and a bottle of O White Balsamic Vinegar in order to test them in my own kitchen and collect information for this review. Additionally, I will use them to create a recipe for a contest, where I could potentially win other O Olive Oil products. No monetary compensation was received for this review and a positive review was not required. As with all Busy-at-Home reviews, the views and opinions expressed are wholly my own, and based on my personal experience with the product.
