British tomatoes couldn’t be any tastier at present and this salad shows them off so well.
Panzanella is a Tuscan bread salad that marries garlicky croutons with juicy tomatoes, basil, red onion and mozzarella cheese.
It is dressed simply with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to enhance the natural flavours of those beautiful tomatoes.
I’ve jewelled this salad with quail eggs to add interest and extra protein, plus these tiny eggs work so well in this recipe.
Treat quail eggs like miniature hen’s eggs. They have a similar, but perhaps more subtle flavour and they cook super quickly, in 2 minutes max to be precise.
The quail eggs I used are by Clarence Court, a super free-range supplier of high-quality British eggs from traditional breed birds. You can check them out here: Clarence Court.
Ingredients:
500g of tomatoes, use different colours, shapes & sizes
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
a large handful of basil
a large handful of rocket
1 ball of mozzarella cheese
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
12 Clarence Court quail eggs (check larger Sainsbury’s stores)
sea salt and black pepper to season
2 slices of sourdough bread or any similar bread, toasted then left to go cold
1 clove of garlic, peeled
Method:
Roughly chop the tomatoes and halve any cherry tomatoes.
Pop them in a large bowl with a good pinch of sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Squash some of the tomatoes either using your hands (literally go in, grab a handful and squish) or press them down with a spoon. This will create some tomato juice that the garlic croutons will then soak up.
To make the croutons, rub the garlic clove over the toasted bread. You’ll see the garlic disappear as you do this. It’ll cling onto the surface of the bread to make super tasty garlic toast. Cut the garlic bread into cubes.
Add the sliced red onion, basil & rocket to the bowl with the tomatoes. Season again with a pinch more sea salt and black pepper. Stir in half of the croutons, pull apart the mozzarella and add that to the bowl too.
To cook the quail eggs, set a pan of water on a high heat and fill a cereal bowl with cold water plus a few ice cubes. Bring the pan of water to boil, gently drop in all of the eggs and cook for 2 minutes.
Remove the eggs from the boiling water and drop them immediately into the bowl with the cold water. This will stop them from cooking further and it’ll make it far easier to peel them too.
Peel the eggs.
To finish off the salad, pour in the olive oil and balsamic vinegar, stir well, pop the rest of the croutons and the quail eggs on top of the salad. Serve immediately.