Harmony Kitchen

Sept 19, 2025 Recipe of the Week

Have you tried our tomatoes yet this year? They are the most delicious tomatoes we have ever grown. We are eating them as much as possible and in every way we can think of.

It makes me especially happy when I have a recipe that is easy, tastes delicious and eliminates waste. Which is why panzanella is one of my all time favourites.

Panzanella is a bread salad so bread is the star of the show, stale bread in fact. You can supplement the bread with all sorts of different veggie ingredients, really whatever you have on hand. If what you happen to have on hand is tomatoes, you are in for a special treat!

Pantry items: ~1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil ~1 tbsp dijon mustard ~2 tbsp red wine vinegar Salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:

Knife and Cutting Board

Mixing bowl

Sheet pan

Colander

Whisk

Method

One of the beauties of this salad is its flexibility. There is no strict recipe. It also uses stale bread that would otherwise go to waste.

So if you have stale bread, use it. You will be amazed at how delicious it is. If you don’t have any stale bread, you can save some in the freezer for next time and buy the recipe basket this time:)

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. If you have a convection option, use it. If not, no worries, the bake function will work just fine.

While the oven is pre-heating, either cut bread into ~1″ cubes OR take a bag of previously cubed stale bread out of the freezer. How many should you cut/use? As many as you like! If you are using focaccia, 1/2 loaf will work well but more or less will also be fine. Toss the bread cubes with a few tablespoons of olive oil (enough to lightly coat the cubes) and a few pinches of salt. Then spread them on a sheet pan and bake them in the pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes. Check them part way and move them around a bit if some are getting crispier than others.

Next, cut up your tomatoes (any way you like them). Sprinkle with a few good pinches of salt. Leave the tomatoes in a colander. Set the colander over a bowl to catch all of the juice that will come out. This will concentrate the tomato flavour and become the start of a simply amazing salad dressing!

While the tomatoes are releasing their juices, prep dressing ingredients and anything else you would like to add to the salad.

You may have a few minutes to spare before the tomatoes have hit their peak juiciness (it usually takes 10-15 minutes). If you do, take a little break!

For the dressing, add one finely chopped or grated clove of garlic, mustard, salt, pepper and vinegar directly to the collected tomato juice. Whisk until it comes together then slowly drizzle olive oil while you continue whisking until you have a sauce-y consistency. Grab a little spoon and give it a taste. Add more salt, oil or vinegar if need be.

By now, the croutons should be ready. Maybe they have even cooled for a few minutes. When they are cool enough, toss them in with the salad dressing then add the tomatoes and anything else you would like. If you can (we never can), wait 10-15 minutes to let the croutons soak up some of the dressing before serving.

Time Savers, Storage Tips and Spin off Recipes

• For this recipe, I kept it simple with only tomato and basil. If you happen to have some other delicious herbs, onions or veggies in your crisper, think about adding them in to boost your plant power.
• If you add onion, try soaking it in water, vinegar or salad dressing for a few minutes before adding it to cut some of its potency.
• If you add other watery veggies (like cucumber), consider salting them (separately from the tomatoes) before adding them to concentrate their flavour and keep them from releasing water into the finished product (leaving you with a watery salad)
• Want to boost your protein component? Add some cheese (like feta!) or crispy bacon bits!

Did you Know?

Vegetables with different colours contain different phytochemicals and therefore count as different plants in your weekly 30 diversity plant count.

So if you received three different colours of tomatoes you can count them as three different plants!

This Recipe’s Plant Count: Eight plus bonus points for any differently coloured tomatoes (or veggie add-ons)

Time Required: 25-30 minutes (15 minutes active)

2-3 main course servings or 4-6 side servings