How To Make Panzanella Salad

Divya: Hi I'm Divya Gugnani and we’re here at the Tribeca food festival. I'm heading over to the stall for Tribeca grill to get some regional American cuisine with sustainable ingredients. So let’s go behind the burner and meet the chef. Hi, I’m here with executive Stephen Lewandowski. Stephen what are we making? Stephen: We’re making an heirloom tomato and feta cheese panzanella salad. Divya: And what's a panzanella? Stephen: It’s a Tuscan bread salad. Divya: Okay, so, Polish guy makes Tuscan bread salad. Stephen: Okay, we start with a little bit of lettuce so we have some radicchio a little bit of chopped romaine and these are pea leaves, pea in the spring time are trying incorporate a lot of the spring ingredient. You get some spring squash, zucchini and yellow squash. A little bit of English peas and fresh fava beans. Divya: And you cook those a little bit? Stephen: Yeah, we blanch them in a little boiling water and then chuck in a nice water to stop the cooking. Divya: So you get that beautiful bright green color. Stephen: Exactly. We have some diced cucumber, a little bit of cherry tomatoes. This is the panzanella base if you will. So we take these beautiful heirloom tomatoes, we dice them and we marinade them and red onion, a little bit of black olive, vinegar, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Divya: All the beautiful things. Stephen: Exactly. Feta cheese adds a little bit of salt to the dish and then we take the day old bread. So we take some fruits on. Take a pair thongs if you want to kind of mix that around a little bit. Divya: I will. Stephen: I will put a little bit of salt in there you want to be careful with the salts because of the black olives that are in there and—you just want to mix that there down a little bit. The red wine vinegar that’s in the marinated tomato just kind of dress the salad, dressing from the tomatoes and then the natural juice in the tomato will reach out a little bit and what you want to do is kind of soften up the bread a little bit so it’s still crunchy but soft. That’s a great spring salad. You can grill some shrimp on the barbecue, do a little grilled chicken. Divya: Yeah. Stephen: Put this on top, very light, healthy. Divya: Will it work with steak too? Stephen: Exactly, there's not a lot of fat in there it’s a great spring salad. You could use anything that’s in your refrigerator. Any kind of vegetables that are laying around just put them in. Divya: When I make salads, I always like to have a good balance with textures. You got the crunch from the bread and you got some olives that give a nice texture and the peas and different types of lettuce. Stephen: Exactly, the feta cheese was kind of creamy that breaks down a little bit it kind of coats the lettuce. Divya: Looks beautiful, where is my fork? Stephen: There we are right there, so it’s an heirloom tomato and feta cheese panzanella. I'm going to try this with you to see how we did. Divya: You're right, there was just enough dressing for the whole salad. Stephen: Nice and light. Divya: Nice and light and fresh for the summer. Thanks so much for having us. Stephen: Thank you. Divya: Stay tuned to behind the burner where we give you the tips, tricks and techniques that are lighting the culinary world on fire.