Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Breakfast Panzanella




I'm finally back from my travels (which were, for the most part, delicious) and back to the kitchen. Yesterday I bought such beautiful tomatoes that I just couldn't wait til tonight to cook them (and last night I went to Frugal Foodies), so I decided to make panzanella for breakfast this morning. Panzanella is basically a bread and tomato salad. The key is grilling your bread-- don't just toast it or you'll miss out on the smokey flavor that contrasts perfectly with the sweetness of the cherry tomatoes. If you want to make this more of a brunch dish, use two eggs per person.

You'll need (serves one):

1 egg
1t vinegar for poaching (I use rice wine vinegar)

one thick slice of day-old (or older) bread (I used walnut bread. Yum!)
a handful of cherry tomatoes
1/2 avocado
a small handful of basil leaves

olive oil
balsamic vinegar

Heat water with vinegar for poaching.

Heat a griddle pan. Brush the bread with olive oil. Grill until just golden.

In the meantime, halve the cherry tomatoes. Cube the avocado. Chiffonade the basil leaves. Toss it all together with salt and pepper.

When bread is just golden, cut into large cubes and return to griddle, adding more olive oil if necessary. When bread is done, toss with tomato mixture.

Poach egg. Place egg on top of panzanella. Drizzle salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

well, purp, i'd like to say i'm glad to see you back, and don't get me wrong, on one level i am. however, on the level above my belt and near my bellybutton, i am truly disappointed. you choose to do something with tomatos~ what is wrong with you? what kind of sick individual are you?

please do some meat, pig, lamb or dag.

signed,

anon, but disappointed.

birdie said...

dear anon,

could this tomato rejection stem from some inherited mental disorder on the male side.... hmmmm???
I think so.

purplecook said...

Haha, birdie has it right! Anonymous, careful what you say if you don't want your identity revealed.

I love tomatoes, but meat is good too. See most recent post (Farmers Market Skillet Casserole).

Anonymous said...

i saw your farmers market whatever. it looks okay. birdie seems somewhat disoriented in its analysis. tomato rejection is a sign of the highest order of species. indeed, the ancient tribes from Antarctica never ate tomatos. tomato eating developed in the societies dominated by developmentally disabled individuals whose sole source of nutrition was peanuts.

Blog Widget by LinkWithin