Italian Tomato & Crusty Bread Salad
A simple salad, a classic salad, and a go-to salad over summer. This is a great salad for using up days-old bakery bread that maybe didn’t get eaten in time. Tear it apart and lather it in extra virgin olive oil. Bake until crispy and these will keep for 2 weeks in an air-tight container.
Having these up your sleeve makes it really easy to throw together this salad in time for a spontaneous bbq or quick lunch.
The crustier and dryer the bread, the better. This will soak up all of the balsamic dressing and tomato juice. Meaning it will be full of flavour and still hold its shape.
Ingredients:
4 slices sourdough
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
700g tomatoes, a combination of truss and cherry tomatoes
1 bunch basil, leaves only
50g parmesan cheese
¼ cup balsamic dressing (recipe here)
Good grind sea salt
Method:
Preheat oven to 160deg.
Roughly chop or tear bread into 2-3cm pieces. Scatter across a baking tray and drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the bread, mix together with your hands so that the bread soaks up the oil of the oil. Bake for 20-25 minutes until dry and light golden brown.
Slice cherry tomatoes in half and roughly chop truss tomatoes. Place in a mixing bowl and add balsamic dressing, give it a good mix together with your hands, this will marinate your tomatoes. Set aside while bread toasts.
Add crusty bread to the tomatoes, and mix well. Set aside for 10 minutes to allow the bread to soak up the liquid.
Finally, using a peeler shave the parmesan cheese into the salad and add basil leaves, mix gently and place on a serving platter, scatter with more basil leaves and a few shaves of parmesan on top.
Best eaten immediately.
Gluten-free: Use gluten-free bread
Dairy Free: Crumble goats feta