Panzanella
A few of my favourite things, and a recipe from Baker Bleu by Mike Russell with Emma Breheny
If I were to list my favourite things to eat on their own, or with each other, then bread, tomatoes, and anchovies would be up there, as would stone fruit albeit that’s usually more a solo ingredient for me.
Bread, toasted, layered or even just rubbed with tomato. Fresh white bread, butter, tomato, salt. Sourdough toast, tomato, olive oil, with perhaps a few draped anchovies. The promise of a simple lunch or a punchy supper, they’re combinations that never disappoint. And, there’s always something variable to add to the core ingredients, like capers or maybe a little chilli, but you’re just as well keeping it simple.
So, there’s no great thought required as to why given a choice of recipes from Baker Bleu, I plumped to bring you panzanella. The new book from Mike Russell (with Emma Breheny), the baker behind the eponymous Baker Bleu (with outposts in Melbourne and now Sydney) is just out here in Australia and I’m sure it’ll make its way overseas.
My bread making efforts have been less than stellar over the years. A latest foray over summer saw me nurture a starter over weeks, to then rest it in the fridge while away for a week, and have it go mouldy. RIP Bertie The First. My hope is that with Mike’s expert guidance Bertie The Second will live a long and useful life.
The book goes beyond just baking with a what to do with your baked goods direction as well. Running in the next week will be Neil Perry’s curried egg sandwich.
Panzanella is, I suppose, the Last Chance Saloon for many a loaf. I’d like to tell you that I first ate or became aware of this waste saver in situ, somewhere in Tuscany or perhaps have some story beyond that it was probably through Jamie Oliver. I can’t find it in his early books but I have a vague recollection that it was on one of his early shows or maybe a TV appearance. You can also file pangrattato in the same drawer.
Russell pitches his “baker’s salad” as a side but I always find that great sides can become the main attraction. He adds ripe nectarines for a hit of summer lovin’, and I’d be inclined to go further, looking at it like that ingredients led wheel of fortune. Add leftover roast chicken, an egg, avocado, or strip it back to its basics omitting some of the pricier ingredients.
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