Ultimate panzanella

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This is a little different to a regular panzanella in a few ways: firstly, the bread is toasted rather than stale, meaning that while some parts soak up the dressing, others stay crunchy, giving you the best of both worlds. We’ve also added some blitzed seaweed, which works very well with the anchovies and tomatoes, some charred red peppers for extra sweetness and smoky flavour and crispy fried capers. Both the peppers and the bread can be cooked indoors or on the barbecue.

First published in 2023

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Salad

  • 300g of sourdough bread, torn into rough chunks for roasting or sliced for barbecuing
  • olive oil
  • salt to taste
  • 2 red peppers
  • vegetable oil, for deep-frying
  • 2 tbsp of capers
  • 1kg ripe tomatoes, different colours and sizes, chopped into chunks if large, halved or quartered if small
  • 6 anchovy fillets, halved lengthways
  • 1 handful of basil leaves, torn
  • 1 handful of Kalamata olives

Dressing

Equipment

  • Barbecue

Method

1

Preheat the oven to 180ºC or preheat a barbecue for direct cooking

2

If oven cooking, place the bread chunks into an ovenproof dish in a single layer, drizzle generously with olive oil and season with salt. Transfer to the oven and cook until golden, around 20 minutes, stirring once. If using the barbecue, rub the sliced bread with a little oil before toasting until lightly charred on each side. Tear into pieces and set aside

  • 300g of sourdough bread, torn into rough chunks for roasting or sliced for barbecuing
  • olive oil
  • salt to taste
3

Char the peppers on the barbecue or in a griddle pan until blackened on all sides - around 15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and cover tightly. Leave for 5 minutes, then deseed, rub off the skins and chop into strips

4

Heat 1 cm vegetable oil in a small frying pan

  • vegetable oil, for deep-frying
5

Pat the capers dry, then add them to the hot oil (do this in batches if necessary) and fry for 2–3 minutes, or until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to kitchen paper

6

Combine the shallot, red wine vinegar, seaweed, olive oil and some salt (season lightly as the anchovies and olives are both salty) and pepper in a clean lidded jar or bowl and shake or whisk to combine

7

Combine the dressing with the tomatoes, peppers, croutons, anchovies, three quarters of the basil and the olives. Mix well, then top with the remaining basil and the crispy capers just before serving

  • 1kg ripe tomatoes, different colours and sizes, chopped into chunks if large, halved or quartered if small
  • 6 anchovy fillets, halved lengthways
  • 1 handful of basil leaves, torn
  • 1 handful of Kalamata olives
First published in 2023

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