Panzella ...

It’s Monday evening and a hot night, and the salad you bought on Saturday is nearly gone, and that half eaten designer sourdough loaf is turning into a house brick. And, no you didn’t think to stop off at the supermarket on the way home

What to do?

The answer is Panzella - italian torn bread salad. To make i a reasonable quantity for two people you need

• half a can of good diced canned tomatoes
• a decent glug of olive oil
• a couple of garlic cloves
• half a slightly stale artisan loaf
• dried tomatoes/capers/anchovies to taste
• parsley
• salt and black pepper to taste

Combine the canned tomatoes, olive oil and crush the garlic to make a chunky cold sauce. Chop the bread, say around 250g worth, into 2cm cubes, into a decent sized bowl. Pour the sauce over and release your inner child byturning the bread cubes over several times so that the start to absorb the liquid.

Add some dried and semi dried tomatoes to the mix, along with two or three chopped anchovies and some capers. If you have some small cherry tomatoes cut three or four in half and add them to the mix.

Taste the sauce and add any extra salt or black pepper. Cover in clingfilm and place in the fridge for half an hour to fully absorb the liquid while you watch the news.

Garnish with parsley and serve.

Panzella’s best served along side something else. Last night we had some left over barbecued chicken so we chopped it up, added some walnuts and what left over salad and rocket we had, and dressed it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. If you don’t have any left over chicken you could try a simple tuna salad, or even chickpeas with oil, lemon juice and garlic - it really depends on your imagination and what you have left in the fridge ...