the rebellious panzanella

We've had a pretty awesome summer so far. Okay, the weather was pretty dismal (especially during our ten days in Scotland, a few of them sleeping in a tent!) but we had so much fun with family and friends that it didn't really seem to matter. And then London was hit by a heatwave, so we all slowly sweltered in our homes, ducking out under shady trees in the park during the day and sleeping restlessly at night. And then suddenly there were only two weeks left of our summer hols. Two weeks! How did that happen?? Just time to squeeze in our final fling of the hols in sunnier climes, laying by a pool for the week. Hello, Corfu :)

A wonderful Insta friend asked me about my Panzanella as I'd shared a picture of it and I thought I'd pop the recipe on here since it's been a regular fixture in our house across the summer. I have LOVED the addition of peaches for the last couple of months, but here's the thing. With anything you add - peaches, tomatoes, avocados - they have to be really ripe and fresh. Nothing worse than biting into an unripe peach or other type of fruit. And I read a blog post recently about how Panzanella isn't truly authentic if you toast your bread - it should be stale, untoasted bread a few days old. Here's the shocker. I toast my bread and even use fresh ciabatta. Believe me that I would use stale bread if I had it lying around the kitchen but I never do when I want to make this and I'm never prepared to wait a few days when I get the craving!

So any real Panzanella aficionados will probably be jumping up and down in horror when they read this. But I love making this dish because it's so versatile. You can throw in a little of this and a little of that depending on what you have to hand. And rules are made to be broken, right? Well, maybe not all of them but - this is how I make my Panzanella and I hope it totally inspires you to make one yourself!

Serves 4 for a light lunch

Ingredients

2 SHALLOTS
1/4 CUP RED WINE VINEGAR
I CIABATTA LOAF (ideally a few days old, but fresh is perfectly acceptable!)
1 PUNNET RIPE SMALL TOMATOES (it doesn't matter what type but the size of cherry tomatoes)
2 RIPE PEACHES
250G MOZARELLA
8 PIECES PARMAHAM
1 RIPE AVOCADO
1/4 CUP OLIVE OIL (for the dressing) + 2 TBPS (for frying the bread)
1 TBSP OREGANO
HANDFUL OF MINT LEAVES (I didn't have these when I made the Panzanella pictured but I recommend adding them if you have them available)

Method

Chop the shallots into small pieces and put in a cup with the red wine vinegar
Set aside to macerate
Cut the ciabatta into 5cm cubes and gently fry them in a pan with 2 tbsp olive oil -- you're looking for them to be lightly toasted -- and set aside
Cut your avocado in half and remove the stone
Placing the flat side of your avocado against a mandolin (or feel free to use excellent knife skills), slice the avocado as thinly as possible -- I find it easier with a ripe avocado to keep the skin on until the end and then you'll find you can carefully peel it away keeping your avocado intact
As you slice the avocado, you want to keep the pieces in order as you're going to place them in your dish as 2 avocado halves -- you can even fan them out if you're feeling artistic
Cut each peach into 8 pieces leaving the skin on but discarding the stones
Tear up the mozarella by hand into pieces
Now you're going to assemble your panzanella
Get a large serving bowl and put the ciabatta in the bottom of it
On top of the bread, toss the tomatoes, peaches and mozarella
Over the top pour your macerated shallots and the red wine vinegar
Give it a gentle stir and set aside for 10 minutes
Place the avocado fans on either side of the bowl
Take each piece of parmaham and wrap it into a rose and place them on the surface around the bowl
Mix together the olive oil and oregano and then pour across your panzanella
This is great as an accompaniment for a BBQ although I would usually make another salad to go with it -- or serves 4 as a light meal...of course depending on how hungry you are :)