Tomato season is upon us!! I am always so amazed at the taste difference between a fresh in season tomato versus one I buy at the store in February! It all of a sudden makes sense to me why they are technically fruits, because I can actually taste their sweetness!!

We received heirloom tomatoes in our LINC Box a couple weeks in a row. Heirlooms are so beautiful and I knew I had to do something fun and special with them. I stumbled across a recipe for panzanella. Now, to be honest, I don’t think I knew what panzanella salad was until this experience. Now I am hooked!! We bought some bread from our local bread shop, The Grain Shed, to use in this salad too! Here is the recipe:

Heirloom Tomato Panzanella

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs heirloom tomatoes, chopped in large pieces

• 10 oz cherry tomatoes, halved

• 1 cucumber, sliced and quartered

• 1/2+ red onion, sliced

• 4 cups crusty bread, chopped in large pieces

• 1 head basil, chopped

• olive oil

• 2-3 TBSP red wine vinegar

• salt and pepper

How to:

1. Preheat the oven to 300F. Chop the bread into pieces and toss with a little bit of olive oil and salt. Place on a baking sheet and cook for 25+ minutes, or until bread is crusty.

2. Meanwhile, mix together the heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and onion.

3. Add the basil, olive oil and red wine vinegar and carefully mix.

4. Traditionally, you would mix in the bread pieces, however I didn’t want ours to lose their texture and get moist, so I mixed them in with the servings we were having and kept them separate in storage.

We served ours with Greek flavored chicken!! I also served my leftovers with cottage cheese, and trust me when I say it was AMAZING!