Brunch Panzanella

I’ve been wanting to make panzanella for a really long time. But panzanella is usually made with tomatoes, and this posed a bit of a problem for me. I happen to live with someone who refuses to eat fresh tomatoes. A freak of nature, if you will. And I know I could make the panzanella just for myself, but I never bothered. If there’s something that I like and Adam doesn’t, it usually doesn’t get made. This is mostly just laziness on my part. If I’m going to make something, I want it to be something we’ll both enjoy. And if I’m cooking for myself alone, I’m not making panzanella. I’m making Hot Pockets or some other culinary no-no that I probably shouldn’t be admitting publicly. Like I said, I’m lazy.

So when I saw a recipe for Brunch Panzanella that did not include tomatoes, I jumped all over it. But the merits of this dish go far beyond a simple omission of tomatoes. This panzanella has all sorts of goodies, such as strawberries, blueberries, raisins, and nuts.

I made a few changes to the recipe, but not many. I used walnuts instead of almonds, because that’s what I had, and amaretto instead of brandy, because that’s my favorite. I topped mine with whipped cream, because I’m like that, but you could also top it with yogurt to make it more healthy and breakfasty. I also found that the proportions for the recipe were a bit off (I ended up with less brown butter syrup than the recipe said I should have), so I’ve cleaned it up a bit and am including the modified version below. You can find the original here.

This recipe is full of possibilities. I’m already thinking of what other combinations of fruits, nuts, and liqueurs might be good. Yum!

This recipe is, as the name suggests, intended for brunch, but I also think it would make a great light supper on a warm night.

Brunch Panzanella
adapted from Brunch Panzanella
3 servings

2 cups macerated strawberries, recipe follows
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2-pound Italian country-style loaf of bread

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon amaretto
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

4-5 oz. blueberries, washed
1/4 cup lightly packed torn mint leaves
1 cup heavy cream, lightly whipped (or vanilla yogurt)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare macerated strawberries, and refrigerate until ready for use.

Toast walnuts in a dry pan over medium heat, about 10 minutes or until fragrant, and reserve until ready for use.

Place the raisins in a small bowl. Cover with hot water. Allow the raisins to plump for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and reserve until ready for use.

Cube bread into approximately 1/2-inch chunks. You should have about 4 cups. Reserve until ready for use.

Make the brown butter syrup. Melt the butter in a 10-inch skillet over high heat, and cook until it browns. Add the bay leaf and stand back (it might pop). Lower the heat to medium and add the sugar to the pan and stir. When the sugar has melted, add the amaretto and stand back (it might flame). Add the lemon juice. Cook for 15 seconds, then add the orange juice and salt. Stir and cook until the liquid has reduced and reached a syrupy consistency. You should have about 1/2 cup. Remove the bay leaf.

Place the cubed bread in a large bowl and toss with half of the brown butter syrup. Spread the bread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until golden and crispy on the outside and still chewy inside, 15 to 20 minutes, turning half-way through for even coloring.

When done, return bread to bowl and add remaining brown butter syrup, walnuts, raisins, blueberries, and mint. Toss well. To serve, spoon some strawberries into a bowl. Spoon some panzanella beside the strawberries. Spoon some whipped cream (or vanilla yogurt) over the strawberries. Garnish with fresh mint.

Macerated Strawberries

1 pound strawberries, washed and halved
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well until sugar is distributed and strawberries are evenly coated.

Soup and Sammy

So I'm continuing to love my subscription to Everyday Food. Yesterday I made Green-Pea Soup with Cheddar-Scallion Panini from the March issue. It's very fast and very easy. The panino is basically a grilled cheese with scallions, and the soup is mostly pureed frozen peas and chicken broth.


By the way, I have a story about frozen peas. I recently caught an episode of Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello in which Michael was making a pea dish with frozen peas and, I suppose, felt the need to justify not using fresh peas. He told a story about how, when he was a young chef in France, he asked one of the older chefs how he got his pea sauce to be such a fresh, vibrant green. The chef took Michael over to the freezer and revealed a stash of frozen peas. "Monsieur, it is zee Birds Eye peas," said the chef. I'm paraphrasing here, but Michael definitely said that the French chef showed him "Birds Eye" peas. And you know what? They are pretty darn good.

That being said, the soup, while fresh and bright, is lacking a bit of oomph. I'm not sure what else to do with it, but I thought it might be good with some seasoned croutons floating on top. I served this for dinner but, because it's so light, I think it would make a better lunch. And the sandwich is fabulous. Be sure to use sharp cheddar.


The complete recipe is here. I followed it exactly except for adding extra lemon juice, salt, and pepper to the soup.

Andouille Sausage Pizza with Onion Confit and Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Yesterday was a day of firsts for me. It was the first time I made a Michael Chiarello recipe. I've always enjoyed his show, and I wish it was one of the more popular shows on FN. It seems that, with the exception of Bobby Flay, all the shows hosted by chefs are fading away, and, in turn, the more advanced recipes, at least in terms of technique, are being replaced by all things quick and simple. It's true that I'll more often make a Rachael Ray-type recipe than I will a Michael Chiarello-type recipe, but that's only because there are 2 days per week that I have hours to spend on a meal, and 5 that I don't. So while I, like most home cooks, may more often turn to a relatively simple recipe, I much more appreciate a complicated one, because it is in working through those that I find my cooking improves the most. Although I wouldn't exactly call Andouille Sausage Pizza with Onion Confit and Fontina Cheese complicated; it is, however, a bit time consuming. Most of that is down time, but you have to have a couple hours free to let things cook slowly in the oven.


The other first I experienced with this recipe was the making of a confit, which refers to a food item that has been immersed and slowly cooked in a flavoring liquid, traditionally for preservation. The confit here consisted of onions cooked in a mixture of oil, vinegar, wine, salt, and sugar. Though I've only done it once, I already feel like the making of an onion confit is a valuable method to become familiar with. The onions really absorb the flavor of whatever you cook them in, so much so that, by the end, they hardly taste like onions anymore. So if you're ever looking for a way to take a liquid and concentrate its flavor in a solid form, consider an onion confit.


Overall, this pizza was very good. I wish I had a pizza stone, so that my crust would have turned out more crispy, but that's another item on my wait-'til-we-have-a-house list. The crust was tender though (I used Emeril's recipe), and the toppings worked wonderfully together. The spicyness of the andouille and the sweetness of the confit balanced each other nicely, and the cheeses brought all the flavors together. The oven-dried tomatoes were a welcome alternative to the usual pizza sauce--they were sweet, delicious, and full of the flavors of the garlic-thyme oil in which they'd been cooked.


Andouille Pizza with Onion Confit and Oven-Dried Tomatoes
adapted from Andouille Sausage Pizza Pie, using Emeril's Basic Pizza Dough

Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 links fresh andouille
4 cloves garlic, divided
2 yellow onions, sliced
1/2 cup champagne or white wine vinegar
Pinch of sugar for confit, plus 1 teaspoon for dough
2 tablespoons white wine
2 roma tomatos
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup warm (110 degrees F) water
1 (1/4-ounce) envelope active dry yeast
3 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1 oz. fontina cheese, shredded
2 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup grated parmesan
2 tablespoons chopped parlsey

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

First, prepare the sausage. Remove the casings from two links of andouille, then tear the sausages into small pieces and drop into an oil-drizzled skillet over medium-high heat. Saute until cooked through. Reduce heat to medium, add two cloves of thinly sliced garlic, and cook 2 minutes more. With a slotted spoon, remove garlic and sausage from pan and set aside.

Next, prepare the onion confit. Add enough olive oil to andouille renderings to equal about 1/4 cup. Add onions, and cook for a few minutes, or until they begin to soften. Add 1/2 tablespoon salt, vinegar, pinch of sugar, and white wine. Cover skillet with a parchment-paper circle that's had a two-inch hole cut out of the center to allow steam to escape. Place skillet in the oven and allow to cook for 2 hours, or until pizza dough is ready. (You can plan to cook the vegetables for 3 hours if you have the time, but I'm impatient.)


Slice tomatoes into four slices each. Drizzle a baking pan or sheet with about 2 tablespoons olive oil, top with tomatoes, then drizzle an additional 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the tomatoes. Top with 2 thinly sliced garlic cloves, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, a couple grinds of pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme. Place in oven to cook with onions (tomatoes and onions will be done at the same time).


About an hour before tomatoes and onions are finished, prepare pizza dough. In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, 1 tablespoon oil, and 1 teaspoon of sugar, and stir to combine. Let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour and 1 teaspoon of salt, mixing by hand until it is all incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Continue adding the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, working the dough after each addition, until all the flour is incorporated but the dough is still slightly sticky. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth but still slightly tacky, 3 to 5 minutes.

Oil a large mixing bowl with 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl and turn to oil all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free place until nearly doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Remove the dough from the bowl and briefly knead. Place on a lightly floured work surface and let rest for 10 minutes. Transfer to a lightly oiled baking sheet (or a baker's peel, if you have one) and shape into a large round.

Remove vegetables from oven, and adjust oven temperature to 450 degrees. Scatter shaped dough with fontina, then top with onions and the tomatoes and reserved sausage, being sure to include the garlic that was cooked with both. With a pastry brush, lightly brush the edges of the dough with the oil that the tomatoes cooked in, using just enough to lightly coat the outside of the dough. Finally, top with mozzarella and parmesan cheese and bake in preheated oven for about 12 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust begins to turn golden brown. Top with parsley and serve.