Panzanella

Essentially a bread salad with loads and loads of vegetables, Panzanella is a typical summertime snack that saves you from piling on the calories and satiates your taste buds. Crimson tomatoes, juicy cucumbers, crunchy onions, lettuce, carrots, capers and fresh basil are thrown on top of a bed of croutons and drizzled with a savoury olive oil and lemon dressing with generous shavings of cheddar cheese. The crispy bread soaks up all the delicious juices of the condiment and the vegetables, thus imparting a wonderful flavour to the salad. Trust the bowls to get wiped up in no time at all.

I had my first tryst with panzanella at a quaint bistro in Florence. The Italians are known for their generosity and I was served a large square dish filled to the brim with this healthy, colourful goodness. The first mouthful was an explosion of many flavours and textures – salty, sweet, tangy, garlic-y, cheesy, crunchy, oily, doughy and I knew that I wanted some more. I distinctly remember polishing off the entire serving and asking for another one. That was my dinner. I didn’t really want to order anything else, much to the amusement of the waiting staff. I went back feeling happy and incredibly healthy and returned the next day for another helping. You get the picture?