Millions of Peaches, peaches for me. Millions of peaches, peaches for free? Well not quite. Kodi went to the Okanagan for the August long weekend and came home with 20 pounds of peaches.  YES, TWENTY POUNDS! WTF (sorry language) am I suppose to do with 20 pounds of peaches?!?!? Besides making my usual suspects (keep posted for upcoming posts) I decided to challenge myself with flavours, and you really cannot go wrong with peaches.

Peach Salad

I love Panzanella salad. Panzanella is traditionally a Tuscan chopped salad consisting of stale bread, tomatoes and sometimes onions and basil with a vinaigrette dressing. It is SO good and an excellent option for all those tomatoes that you cannot keep up with, in the garden and the loaf of bread that always seems to go stale on your counter (or is it just me that happens too?)  It is also very rustic, and is the perfect side dish to any protein.

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I hope you enjoy this salad as much as I did.

….I will admit I pretty much sat and ate the entire plate after I took the pictures…

A few notes: 

To get the stale bread, When I am done with a load, I will cut or rip the bread into crouton size pieces and leave in a bowl on the counter covered with a towel overnight. 

To grill the peaches, I halved them and placed them on a very hot grill for a few minutes, this caramelises the natural sugars in the fruit. 

I used heirloom tomatoes, but you can use whatever tomatoes you like. 

Ingredients: 

3 peaches, halved and grilled

1 cup of chopped stale bread

3 tomatoes, sliced

1/4 red onion, sliced

ricotta cheese

Basil

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

Aged Balsamic Vinegar

 

 Method: 

On a hot grill, grill the peaches until there are grill marks and the peaches are warm.  Slice up the tomatoes and onions and once the peaches are cooled slice them up as well. Arrange on a plate or toss in a bowl. Add the bread and place few dollops of ricotta cheese around the fruit and vegetables. Tear up a few leaves of basil and sprinkle on the dish with a pinch of salt and pepper and drizzle some olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar on top. Serve and Enjoy!