Spring Panzanella Salad

This is the time of the year when we should be easing from summer into spring around these parts. Warmer days, cool nights, and none of that oppressive humidity that the mid-atlantic is soooo famous for.

But apparently, Mother Nature is in the wrong month on her calendar, or she didn’t get the memo, or SOMETHING, because it has been H-O-T this past week. Like August. Complete with crazy thunderstorms. Should I really be surprised in this year of weather extremes? Maybe not. But I was hoping that my flowers would have a couple of weeks of good grow time before I started coming home to them looking all sad, weepy, and half a second from heat stroke every night. Yeah, they hold up in the heat just about as well as I do.

This kind of hot weather makes me want something light, refreshing, and with a bit of crunch for dinner. Because who can handle meat when you’re melting like a candle on a kid’s birthday cake as soon as you step outside. I can’t. So is it any surprise that this recipe practically jumped right out of the feed reader and grabbed me? So much so that I sent it to Noel immediately and said “I want this for dinner.”

Good thing he replied with a “looks delicious.” Because we had everything this needed, and it was happening for dinner. We tossed it up just as the daily thunderstorm rolled in.

Spring Panzanella Salad
Adapted from Sassy Radish

This was really an excellent (and fresh!) Thursday night dinner. It was also a good way for us to use some of the farmer’s market bounty that was hanging out in our fridge. We were a bit skeptical of the uncooked peas, but they were really awesome–and the non-cooking just let us taste how fresh they were.

Ingredients:

Croutons:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
6-7 cups rustic bread, cubed (we used a rather sad sourdough loaf from Panera–I was in a rush!–but it was still awesome)
4 tbsp grated Parmiggiano-Reggiano
Salt and pepper

Vinaigrette:
1 shallot or half a yellow onion, minced
2-3 tbps sherry vinegar
1-2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp honey

Salad:
2 large leeks
2 tbsp butter
1 lb asparagus, washed, trimmed and chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 cup fresh peas
freshly ground pepper
freshly grated Parmiggiano-Reggiano

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.

Place bread cubes in a large bowl. Mix together garlic, oil, Parmesan and salt and pepper and drizzle over bread. Toss to coat the bread. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake, stirring a couple of times and rotating the sheet mid-way through, until the croutons are lightly colored on the outside, but are still somewhat soft inside, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, mix together the shallot and the vinegar. Let sit for a few minutes. Stir in lemon juice, olive oil and mustard. Set aside.

Trim the leeks so you have only the white and light green parts. Half the leeks and wash them well. Saute leeks on slow heat in butter (2 tbsp) until cooked through and clear, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

In the same skillet, heat about a tablespoons of olive oil and saute the asparagus for 5-8 minutes until it is bright green. Set aside.

Combine the croutons, peas, asparagus and leeks. Pour enough vinaigrette to coat. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle some Parmesan on top.

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