old peasant Tuscan meals that became modern hits

Panzanella recipe

~ Alessandra ~ 1 Comment

Below is what is needed to make our original Tuscan panzanella and enjoy it this summer; a great idea as a side dish for the Fourth of July celebrations or any other summer gathering with family and friends. Also a great idea for an original summer salad to bring to pot lucks!

Ingredients:

bread (best if Ciabatta, Italian Rustic loaf or French Country bread, a few days old and hard), chopped, soaked and squeezed

ripe (not mushy) tomatoes, cut into bite size pieces (best if Pantano Romanesco salad tomatoes, Beefsteak or cherry tomatoes)

red onion (thinly sliced)

fresh basil (better if chopped by hand)

virgin olive oil (better if first cold pressed)

a drizzle of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper to your liking (you can substitute red wine vinegar with balsamic vinegar)

What to do:

In order not to discard old bread, chunks of it are soaked in water then squeezed and ripped into smaller morsels.

The wet bread is then put in a salad bowl and typically topped with chopped tomatoes, red onions and basil.

Everything gets mixed together and dressed with olive oil, some vinegar, salt and pepper. Any other fresh vegetable can be added to this delicious summer bread salad.

Panzanella is delicious at room temperature, even better if enjoyed after refrigerating it for a couple of hours. Your family and friends will love this refreshing and easy to make bread salad!

Our meetings for the month of June.

See you in June. A presto!

La ghiacciaia

~ Alessandra ~ 1 Comment

My siblings and I learned from a young age that especially when it comes to food nothing is thrown away in the countryside! It is a habit passed from a generation to the next that originated during tough times, when food was scarce and every bite was to be cherished.

This brings back to mind several dishes that originated from putting together left overs stored in the ghiacciaia: the coldest room of the house, usually near the kitchen (often underground), where hunks of ghiaccio, ice, were stored in order to preserve meats, milk, cheeses and all perishables before every household had a refrigerator. Our nonna kept her ghiacciaia long after she got a refrigerator, as did many people in the countryside still preferring to store some perishables the good old way. We, kids, loved that freezing room so rich of mouthwatering scents, and nick named it Siberia. To keep the ice from melting and the temperature from raising the door wasn’t supposed to be opened often, so we would sneak in any time we caught an adult enter it to leave or retrieve something. 

Panmolle.

Left overs make a delicious summer salad, panzanella. As it has happened for many other dishes that humbly originated in the countryside centuries ago, today there are different recipes for panzanella; they all sound delicious, but some require roasting the bred or making a vinaigrette when, in fact, the essence of the original Tuscan panzanella, or panmolle (soaked bread), we grew up with is just that, soaked bread!

Join me tomorrow for a simple and delicious recipe for the original Tuscan panzanella.