Let me tell you a little story about why you might want to eat this salad every day this week.
Okay, that’s not entirely true — if we ate a salad after every rich meal in this house, we’d basically live on salad. And that would get old. Fast.
Except maybe this one.
Saturday night we went out to dinner. Guess what my husband ordered.
No, really — take a guess.
He ordered an entire fried chicken. The whole bird, plus cornbread and a big serving of baked beans. He devoured it in no time.
[Side note: he ate the whole chicken with a knife and fork — oddly impressive, but not the point.]
After dinner he proudly showed off that his abs were still intact. Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but he did look annoyingly trim. Even more baffling: two hours after that chicken dinner, he was scouring a bar menu for more food at midnight. Is that real life?
It gets better. Less than 12 hours later, he ate two eggs, sausage, bacon, home fries, and massive biscuits smothered in sausage gravy for breakfast. And that was just the start of his Sunday. I still can’t believe how he consumes so much.
He texted me midweek saying, “Ugh. I need to detox. I ate sooo much this weekend.” I asked what he had for lunch and he replied: four chicken enchiladas. Makes perfect sense — if by “detox” you mean more heavy food.
I, meanwhile, actually did eat a salad for lunch. This salad. And I might have eaten most of it. It’s the kind of salad I could eat every day: roasted tomatoes, cubes of bread, fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil and a hit of balsamic glaze. The trick is to make the ingredients uniform in size so every forkful is balanced and perfect.
Clearly I’ve been obsessed with roasted tomatoes lately — they add concentrated sweetness and depth. Combined with the crunch of toasted multigrain bread, creamy cheese, fresh basil and a bright balsamic finish, this panzanella feels indulgent while still being fresh. It’s exactly the kind of “salad” I actually want to eat again and again.
Roasted Tomato Caprese Panzanella
Serves about 4
- 4 cups grape tomatoes
- 4 cups cubed multigrain bread
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 1/2 cups fresh mozzarella balls/pearls (cut larger ones into quarters)
- 15–20 fresh basil leaves
- A generous drizzle of balsamic glaze
Preheat the oven to 400°F. On one baking sheet, spread the tomatoes and drizzle with 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. On a separate sheet, toss the cubed bread with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Roast the tomatoes for 20 minutes, tossing once during cooking. Toast the bread for 10–12 minutes, tossing 2–3 times, until golden.
Drain the mozzarella on a paper towel to remove excess moisture. Tear or chop larger basil leaves, leaving small ones whole if you like.
In a large bowl, combine the bread, roasted tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. Season with the remaining salt and pepper and drizzle the remaining olive oil over the salad. Toss gently, trying to keep the tomatoes intact so the salad looks pretty. Finish with a liberal drizzle of balsamic glaze and serve immediately.
Chomp chomp.