Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar
Recipe by Kamin Mohammad
This sweet memoir is filled with stories of Italy, love, food, children and puppies, five of my favorite things, and peppered with simple recipes, including this bread salad.
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Panzanella
serves 2–4
1 loaf day-old sourdough bread
Red wine vinegar
1 large white or red onion
2 large tomatoes (preferably beefsteak, but any type will do; judge by eye how much you need of different types)
1 cucumber
Fresh basil leaves
Best-quality extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
Slice the sourdough bread: be careful here, as the bread is hard to cut and the knife can slip—my hands are scarred from making panzanella! Place in a large oven-safe dish and pour on a mix of water and red wine vinegar (1 Tbsp. vinegar to a cup of water)—enough to cover the bread and then some extra, as it will all be absorbed—you will need more than you think.
Chop the onion into fine slices, put in a bowl, and cover with another mix of water and red wine vinegar. Leave for a few hours, at least a couple.
When the bread has absorbed all the water and vinegar mixture, peel the crusts off each slice and discard. Then squeeze out the bread with your hands and massage it through your fingers, crumbling it
into a large bowl. Chop the tomatoes and add them to the crumbled bread, along with any juice and seeds. Peel and chop the cucumber into small cubes and add. Drain the onion so there is no liquid remaining and add it to the bowl too. Tear up lots of basil leaves and add, then mix it all together.
Don’t dress the panzanella right away, so you can store it in the fridge—panzanella keeps well and the flavors deepen overnight. Leave in fridge for at least
a couple of hours before serving—panzanella needs to be served well chilled.
Dress with a mix of olive oil and red wine vinegar. Sprinkle on plenty of sea salt and a little bit of black pepper to taste, garnishing with some whole basil leaves.
Excerpted from Bella Figura by Kamin Mohammadi (Knopf). Copyright © 2018 by Kamin Mohammad. Illustrations Copyright © Jacqueline Bissett.
