Panzanella Salad: A favourite light summer family meal!

I love this time of year. The long days and warmth of the summer sun makes me feel happy and is my kind of season. I have so many ideas of things I want to do and places I want to visit too that I need to have plenty of simple summer recipes to hand so I can spend less time in the kitchen and more time out and about enjoying time with my family.

Here's the recipe for a Panzanella salad I put together after being inspired by all the amazing fruit and veg we found at Morrisons. Panzanella is a salad which includes bread soaked in dressing as well as showcasing the best tomatoes that summer has to offer. It makes a perfect light family meal for the summer.

After seeing the many amazing types of tomatoes that could be found at Morrisons, as well as the beautfifully coloured peppers in unsual colours like fresh black peppers and white peppers, I thought this recipe would be a perfect match for Morrisons because you could use those foods in the recipe.

It also includes items that are now cheaper than before. The passata and Seaonal four leaf salad for example are two items that are now at a lower price than previously at Morrisons. You can check-out a lot of the other 'I'm cheaper' products on their online price-checker here.

This recipe is also idea for using up leftover bread or slightly stale bread. We've been cooking a lot of Ciabatta recently (you can find our ciabatta recipe here) and so we used leftovers from one of those loaves.

It is a fantastic recipe for throwing together different types of veg that you might have in your fridge - so in our recipe, I have included some asparagus because it was in season and I had some in my fridge, but you could substitute green beans instead for example.

Ingredients: (serves 4-6)
150ml Passata (for example Morrisons Passata with basil is ideal)
90g pack of pre-packed lettuce (such as Morrisons Seasonal Four Leaf Salad)
300g fresh tomatoes (Morrisons have some unusual and great looking varieties to try)
100g Asparagus tips
2 Fresh Peppers (I used red and green peppers but you could use yellow, orange or even those amazing white and black peppers that you can find at Morrisons)
1 courgette
1 clove garlic
50ml Olive oil (plus a little extra for frying and brushing the peppers with)
15 ml White wine vinegar
1 tbsp Capers (drained)
1 loaf of ciabatta bread - cut into chunks
Salt and Pepper to season if desired

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Cut the peppers into large pieces and brush with olive oil. Cook in the oven for around 20 minutes until softened and slightly charred.
2. Blanche the asparagus tips in boiling water for 1 minute. Then drain and rinse under cold water.
3. Thinly slice the courgette into ribbons using a peeler and finely chop the garlic. Add a little olive oil into a frying pan and fry the garlic and the courgette ribbons until softened.
4. Make up the dressing by mixing together the passata, 50ml olive oil, 15ml white wine vinegar, and seasoning if desired. You can adjust the ratio of passata to olive oil and vinegar according to your taste.
5. Cut the tomatoes in half.
6. Then simply put together all the components of the salad by allowing the bread to soak up the dressing. Finally sprinkle the capers over the salad.

Perfect to enjoy on a sunny day, eating alfresco outside or pack up into containers to take on a picnic.

I am entering my recipe under the category 'Light Summer Family Meals'. 

“This post is an entry for the #MorrisonsMum Summer Recipe eBook Challenge sponsored by Morrisons, which has recently cut prices on over a thousand every day products. Find out more here on their price checker tool”.