Panzanella is a Tuscan-style bread salad made with a loaf of day-old (or older) Italian bread, cubed into large croutons and soaked in vinaigrette to soften it. Chopped salad vegetables are added. The translation we have found for “panzanella” is “bread in a swamp,” the swamp being the water or vinaigrette in which it was soaked.

While today’s recipes are rich in ingredients, the original preparers foraged to pull together vegetables from the garden—cucumber, onion and tomato—and possibly purslane, a salad green that grows wild. Early recipes were heavy on the onions, the cheapest ingredient to pair with the bread. When there wasn’t enough oil to spare, the bread was moistened in water.

Today, this peasant dish is a popular first course in Italy. It doesn’t appear often on menus of U.S.-based Italian restaurants. That’s too bad, because it’s a dish worth knowing. So today’s tip is: Make a bread salad! It‘s a refreshing summer dish that takes just minutes to whip up.

As long as you have vinaigrette-soaked bread, you can create the salad from anything. It‘s a great way to use up any leftovers—including beans, cheese, fish, meat and rice—and aging produce.

RECIPE: TUSCAN BREAD SALAD (PANZANELLA)

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Optional Ingredients

 
*Be sure to use a loaf that has a firm crust and dense crumb, with enough body to be be soaked in the vinaigrette without falling apart. Too many American-style “Italian” breads are soft and airy.

1. MAKE vinaigrette and toss bread in half of it, allowing it to soak for 20 minutes or longer (this step can be done hours in advance). Continue to toss as necessary to fully moisten the bread.

2. PREPARE the salad. Toss with the remaining vinaigrette, seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

3. MIX in the bread and serve.

WHY NOT JUST MAKE CROUTONS OR CROSTINI?

Croutons or crostini required a fire. In the heat of the summer, panzanella requires no cooking.

PANZANELLA CROSTINI: A DECONSTRUCTED TUSCAN BREAD SALAD

If you’re using a grill to cook other food, you can turn the panzanella recipe into an appetizer of crostini of salad-topped grilled bread.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. SOAK garlic clove in oil for 30 minutes or longer. Then make vinaigrette: Whisk together oil, vinegar and garlic, with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

2. HEAT grill. Brush bread on each side with oil, then sprinkle lightly with salt. Grill for 30 seconds on each side or until nicely browned. Set aside and cool to room temperature.

3. TOSS salad ingredients of choice with just enough vinaigrette to moisten. Top crostini with salad, garnish with basil and serve.

RECIPE: GREEN BEANS SALAD WITH GOAT CHEESE & ALMONDS

Ingredients

1. SCORE pomegranate and place in a bowl of water. Break open the pomegranate underwater to free the arils (seed sacs). The arils will sink to the bottom of the bowl and the membrane will float to the top. Sieve and put the arils in a separate bowl. Reserve 1/3 cup of arils for the recipe; refrigerate or freeze remaining arils for another use.

2. If making your own pomegranate juice, CUT 2-3 large pomegranates in half and juice them with a citrus reamer or juicer. Pour mixture through a cheesecloth-lined strainer or sieve. Set the juice aside. You should have 1 cup of juice.

3. PLACE oil in a wok or large skillet and heat until hot. Stir-fry the beans with the lemon peel for 6 minutes.

4. ADD the almonds and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes or until beans are crisp-tender. Remove from heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss beans with reserved pomegranate arils and pomegranate juice; turn onto a serving platter.

5. ARRANGE goat cheese slices over the top (you can crumble them if you prefer) and serve.
 
Find more recipes at PomWonderful.com and in THE NIBBLE’s vegetable recipes section.

We often toss blueberries and Greek yogurt (instead of milk) onto a bowl of cereal, but lately we’ve been getting fancier with a blueberry granola parfait. You can have it for breakfast, lunch, a snack or dessert.

In this recipe, the orange yogurt is a refreshing change. If you can’t find orange yogurt, you can use lemon yogurt and lemon zest, or mix chopped orange segments into plain or vanilla yogurt.

BLUEBERRY YOGURT PARFAIT RECIPE

Ingredients For 4 Servings

1. DIVIDE and layer ingredients into four sundae glasses, large-bowl wine glasses or other interesting dish or glass. Start with granola, then blueberries, then yogurt. If you’re using chopped oranges as a layer, add them between the granola and the blueberries.

2. REPEAT layers. Garnish with orange zest.

Find more fruit recipes at ChileanFruitOnline.com.
BLUEBERRY HANDLING & STORAGE TIPS

[2] Summer is peak blueberry season. Enjoy as many as you can (photo © Vino Li | Unsplash).

July 11th is National Blueberry Muffin Day. If you’ve never made blueberry muffins from scratch, today’s the day. (If not, July is National Blueberry Month and July 8th is National Blueberry Day, and July 10th is National Pick Blueberries Day.)

Use seasonal fresh blueberries. Most commercial blueberry muffins use frozen blueberries, which can get watery. There’s nothing like the real deal.

The creator of this recipe is unknown, but it appeared in early versions of the Fanny Farmer Cookbook.

The recipe is not in recent editions of the cookbook, but you can purchase a reprint of the Fannie Farmer 1896 Cook Book.

The name evokes Twin Mountains in Franconia, New Hampshire, a pair of mountain peaks called North Twin and South Twin.

> The history of blueberries.

> More blueberry recipes.

> Check out the difference between muffins and cake below.
 
 
RECIPE: TWIN MOUNTAINS BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT oven to 400°F. COMBINE 1-1/2 cups flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl. In a second bowl combine eggs, milk, and butter. In a third bowl, sprinkle 1/2 cup flour over the blueberries.

2. POUR the egg mixture over the flour mixture. Stir only enough to dampen the flour; the batter should not be smooth. Gently stir in blueberries.

3. SPOON into buttered muffin tins. The batter should fill each muffin cup two-thirds high. Bake for 15 minutes.

Muffins are often referred to as “small cake-like breads” and quick breads, but this explanation needs to be rethought.

As recipes have evolved over time, the sugar and butter content of many muffins put them into the cake category—more precisely, the cupcake category. Many of them can pass as uniced cupcakes.

That’s why you can serve them for dessert. Cut the muffin in half, toast it lightly if you wish, and top it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or mascarpone.
 
 
See all of the July food holidays.
 
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*You can substitute 1-7/8 cups of all-purpose flour, but pastry flour creates more tender muffins.
 
 

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Serve a fresh fruit tartlet with a matching sorbet. Here are the easy steps: Choose a pairing theme (mango, raspberry, strawberry or other fruit where you can buy or make a matching sorbet) and assemble the ingredients.

You can start by looking for inspiration at artisan sorbets±blueberry tarragon, strawberry basil, etc. But there‘s nothing wrong with a simple, everyday sorbet.

FRUIT TARTLET WITH SORBET

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. CUT the fruit into pieces that fit comfortably into the tartlet shell

2, ADD a light base of crème pâtissière or alternative (if using current jelly, pour it over the fruit). Top with fruit.

3. SCOOP sorbet onto plate; add tartlet; garnish and serve.
FOOD 101: TART VS. TARTLET

A tart is an open-face pastry with a base of plain or puff pastry dough. It is baked in a shallow tart pan that has either straight or fluted sides and a removable bottom, or in a metal tart ring placed on a baking sheet. The filling can be sweet or savory.

“Tart” refers to the full-size, multi-portion pastry, a cousin to the pie. Individual-size tarts are called tartlets; a mini tart (bite size) is also a tartlet.

Unlike a pie, a tart is removed from the tart pan or ring before serving. Here are all the differences between tarts and pies.