I’m a sucker for anything “bread salad” or “panzanella” which means bread salad in Italian. And add bacon to it? Well, I’m in. Because it’s so carb-centric, I try not to give in to eating them very often, but salad was what I wanted for a hot summer night, and this recipe just jumped out at me. And it was ever-so good and pretty on the plate, besides!
My girlfriend Donna was coming over. We had talked about going out to eat dinner, but I decided on a Friday night, a hot Friday night, maybe we should eat in instead, and not battle the restaurant crowds. Besides, we’d have more fun conversing here at my house.
The recipe started out from one at Food52 – called Pea and Bacon Panzanella with Warm Vinaigrette. Well, I decided to improvise a little. I love the addition of fresh corn, cut off the cob, to panzanella. And how can you have a panzanella without any tomatoes? The juice from the tomatoes is also what flavors a panzanella. So I added a couple of small tomatoes too. And I always like some greens. I could have used some Romaine, but arugula sounded good to me, so that’s what I added.
A week or so ago I bought some fresh English peas at Trader Joe’s. We just hardly ever see fresh peas in our markets. They’d been in my refrigerator for over a week and some of them had begun to sprout roots (ya think I let them sit too long?). I dug those out and tossed them away, but I still had plenty left. Yet I wasn’t sure how they were going to taste. I had some peas in the freezer, so I knew if these fresh ones never got tender, I’d toss out the whole thing and use the frozen. The fresh ones took way too long to get tender, but eventually – after about 10-12 minutes of slowly cooking in butter and then steaming with some water added, they got mostly soft. But I actually think they’d turned to starch. Like corn used to do in the old days – every day you didn’t cook them they got more firm and sometimes you could never get them tender. But the peas were definitely edible and added a different texture component to the salad. Next time I’d just use the frozen.
I had defrosted 4 thick slices of apple-smoked bacon and they were probably the star of the dish. What’s the phrase? Everything tastes better with bacon. Yup! I bought a small sourdough boule and cut it up for the bread. I sprinkled the cubes with seasoned garlic salt and sprayed them with olive oil spray and baked them for about 10 minutes in the oven until they were quite dark on the toasted side. But it was still tender enough in the middle. You don’t want to use bread that gets so hard that you feel like you’re chomping down on a jawbreaker. Better to toast the outsides of the bread and still have it slightly soft in the center.
The dressing was easy enough – it uses just a tiny bit of the bacon fat (what’s left in the pan after you cook up the bacon and pour out any puddles of grease, so there’s just a “slick” of bacon fat(. You add a shallot and later some garlic, then sherry vinegar (stand back and don’t breathe it in – you literally can’t breathe), then you pour it into a jar and whisk in the Poupon mustard and lastly olive oil. I didn’t use EVOO on this because I was convinced you couldn’t tell the difference with all the other flavors hitting your mouth sensors – like the bacon, the corn, the crunchy bread, or even the astringency of the vinegar in the dressing.
With everything ready ahead of time, I didn’t re-warm the salad dressing. Why? I didn’t think the dressing would be all that warm anyway (in the original recipe) since you added a bunch of oil to it and that would have cooled it off to about room temp. I doubt the dressing was even “warm” when poured on the salad.
Anyway, toss everything together and pour in 1/4 cup of dressing first – mostly on the bread if you can do it, then taste. Mine required another 1/4 cup, and it might have been able to handle just a little bit more, but not much. The bacon is put on top along with some fresh mint. Serve immediately! No lollygagging around – put it right on the table and dig in.
What’s GOOD: loved the salad. Be careful and don’t use too much bread – gauge your own appetite – both Donna and I left bread on the plate. I think for an average appetite you’d want to eat about 1 1/2 cups of bread per person. But if you have a husky man eating this, maybe more. Loved all the textures and the bacon was the star. I’d have liked more in it, but there was enough to flavor it all. I might have left a bit more bacon grease in the frying pan to help flavor the dressing some more, but that’s up to you. The dressing makes way more than you’ll use – if you don’t want leftovers, cut the dressing recipe in half.
What’s NOT: only that there is some prep work, but not a whole lot, really. Cut the corn off the cob at the last minute. Don’t overcook the peas. Don’t forget the mint!
Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click on link to open recipe in MC)
* Exported from MasterCook *
Pea and Bacon Panzanella with Corn & Tomatoes
Recipe By: Adapted from a Food52 recipe, 6/2014
Serving Size: 2 (maybe 3)
3 cups white bread — cubed (stale is fine)
1/8 teaspoon garlic salt
Olive oil spray
4 slices bacon — thick sliced (use double if regular bacon)
1/2 cup vinaigrette — (see recipe below)
1 cup frozen peas — rinsed in hot water to defrost
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
2 ears corn — cut off the cob
2 medium tomatoes — chopped, including all the juices
2 cups arugula — coarsely chopped
1/2 cup mint — finely chopped
VINAIGRETTE SALAD DRESSING:
2 small shallots, peeled and diced
2 large garlic cloves, smashed or finely minced
1/2 cup sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 cup olive oil (may use EVOO if deisred)
1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Cut the bread into 1/2-inch cubes. If the bread is fresh and hard to cut, toast it for a few minutes to crisp it up. Place cubes on a sheet pan. Sprinkle with salt and spray with olive oil. Toast in the oven until they’re crisp all the way through, about 8-12 minutes. Taste one to know for sure. They can brown a bit but turn the heat down if they start to burn. Take bread cubes out of the oven and set them aside.
3. Chop up the bacon and cook on medium heat in a medium-sized cast iron pan. When it’s crisped up to your liking, remove bacon and place on a paper towel. Pour out all but 1 teaspoon of the bacon fat (basically leaving behind only an oil slick).
4. To make the vinaigrette, place the pan back on low heat (the pan will still be super hot). Toss in shallots. Stir for one minute, scraping up the bacon goodies. Add garlic. Stir for 30 seconds. Pour in vinegar. Turn up to medium heat and boil for 20 seconds. (Be careful and don’t breathe in the vinegar steam.)
5. Take off the heat and pour mixture into a jar that will hold up to 1 1/2 cups of liquid. Whisk in mustard. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Whisk vigorously until it emulsifies. Set aside.
6. Into a large bowl place the bread cubes and add about 1/4 cup of the vinaigrette (stir it vigorously just before measuring). Toss well. Taste it and see whether you need more dressing. If needed, add another 1/4 cup. Letting it sit for 3-5 minutes will help as the liquid soaks in. Add more vinaigrette or salt if necessary. You want the vinaigrette to permeate the bread cubes but they shouldn’t be soggy.
7. Cut the corn off the cobs and add to the salad. Add tomatoes and arugula. Toss again and add more dressing if needed. Taste for seasonings.
8. Garnish with bacon (if you cooked this ahead, put it in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds to heat through) and mint. Eat immediately.
hddonna
said on September 21st, 2014:
What a great way to use some of the last corn and tomatoes of summer, and some of the mint before it’s gone again. I have everything I need for this–hello Monday lunch! My mouth is watering just thinking about it…
Good deal, Donna! . . . carolyn
Lisa
said on September 21st, 2014:
Okay, I’ve got to talk to you, because according to the culinary world I should love dijon mustard (really, really dislike it! And the family doesn’t like it either!) and I’m not overly fond of EVOO and have taken to subbing grapeseed oil for it because the other one is too rich? Maybe I’m using too much? Now this girl grew up with grandparents who cooked everything in bacon grease so maybe that’s my problem.
I’m laughing here, Lisa . . . if you don’t like mustard, gosh, don’t use it. Try substituting a similar amount of mayo – it will act as the emulsion in a dressing. A little tiny bit of Worcestershire sauce can also add good flavor – not the same as Dijon, but if you want something more than just oil and vinegar (plain) try that. A tiny bit. As for oil, I use regular olive oil (not EV) for most things. It’s only when I want the EV aspect to shine through that I use EVOO. I also use walnut oil sometimes (expensive, though). Rachel Ray (I think) coined the EVOO word and since she uses it for everything, lots of cooks thought that’s what they had to do too. If you cook EVOO you lose any sense of that EV taste. So grapeseed oil would work fine. It’s a neutral oil. I use canola oil for salad dressings where I don’t want the olive flavor. Sometimes I mix half canola and half olive oil. So, use your own judgment!!! . . . carolyn t
hddonna
said on September 22nd, 2014:
Just finished our panzanella lunch, and it was scrumptious! I used ciabatta bread, since that’s what I had on hand, and my bacon was just regular, but everything else was the same. It’s the sort of thing that’s very hard to stop eating. I love the more traditional versions of panzanella, too, but this was a really nice change. I’ll definitely be doing this one again…and again! The friend who came to lunch loved it, too. She doesn’t consider herself a cook, but she watched me put this together and decided she should try it herself.
I think that’s so fun when you introduce someone else to a new dish and they discover how easy it is to make@ Glad you enjoyed it. . . carolyn t
Toffeeapple
said on October 2nd, 2014:
Peas should be eaten the moment they are harvested, that is why frozen ones taste so good.
I am all behind again, having been to Scotland for a holiday, I will catch up one day!
I should have known that, but since I so rarely have ever seen them, I guess I have an excuse! I’ll stick to the frozen ones from here on out. . . carolyn t