Mama Mia!

Good evening all.  Tonight's star from my CSA box is the tomato.  I made a tomato-basil panzanella (bread salad). 

I don't know about anyone else, but I see baguettes in the grocery store and think they look sooo tasty and then I forget there are only two of us at home and before you know it, it's stale.  Well, this recipe is perfect for that good, stale bread!  It's also a good vegetarian meal--AND it's quick!  Tom worked down in the basement all day and I wanted to make him a good Italian meal.  He loves Italian and I especially wanted to carb load him after a day of work. 

Ingredients:
- 1 baguette, any kind, I used sourdough, cubed
-3-4 tbsp. olive oil
-1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- 1-2 tbsp. seasoning for the bread. (I used this garlic parm dipping oil seasoning I have)

-about 1 cup variety of tomatoes (I used the two in my CSA box and then a few grape tomatoes I had in the fridge, roughly diced and seeded
- 8-10 leaves of basil
- 5-6 fresh mozzarella bocconcini, diced in half or thirds
- salt and pepper
- pasta on the side, if desired

Preheat the oven to 375.  Cube the stale bread and set aside on a baking sheet.  This was tough!  Stale bread is not easy to cut, even with a serrated knife...got a little workout in for the upcoming carbs I was about to consume.  Cut the large tomatoes in half. GENTLY squeeze some of the extra juice from the tomatoes down over the bread cubes.  Roughly chop the tomatoes and put aside on a different baking sheet.  Stack about 6 leaves of basil on top of one another and roll into a cigar.  Keeping the tight roll, chop the basil and you get little ribbons of basil to put over your tomatoes.  Add about 2 tbsp. olive oil and 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar over the tomatoes and basil and season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle about 2 tbsp. olive oil over the bread and sprinkle your bread seasoning (garlic powder, parm cheese, etc.)  Put both baking sheets in the oven for about 15 minutes.  Keep an eye on the bread so that it doesn't burn.

 I know it doesn't look like a lot, but remember its just the to of us :)

While the food is in the oven, cube the mozzarella balls.  Fresh mozzarella can be a bit expensive, so I usually get it from the antipasto bar.  It ends up being a good bit cheaper and just as fresh!

Remove the bread and tomato basil mix from the oven and toss together in a bowl with the mozzarella.  I chopped about 3 more leaves of basil to put over the top and drizzled a bit more olive oil.  For some reason, I didn't think this would be enough to eat on its own so I made some pasta to have on the side.  It was definitely enough food without the pasta and the bread was so nice and crispy.  However, it DOES need a nice glass of red wine :)