Garlic Bread Panzanella Salad

More About This Recipe

• This is One Sassy Bread Salad
  
  Sometimes we build recipes from the flavors and dishes that we grew up on. Sometimes we teach ourselves to recreate our restaurant favorites. Sometimes the inspiration for a recipe comes from a ripe peach at the farmer’s market.
  
  And sometimes the idea for a recipe hits you in the middle of the grocery store bakery, when you are contemplating croissants and wondering if the sushi guy has made your favorite yet.
  
  What? That’s just me?
  
  Well, that’s exactly what happened when I was picking up ingredients for panzanella recently. I already had a crusty loaf of Italian bread in the cart, along with tomatoes, arugula and assorted other veggies. But then I saw the display of garlic bread. It called to me.
  
  And this is one of those things where you have to throw caution to the wind and just go with it. I mean buttery, garlicky bread … in a salad? Could that even work?
  
  Yes.
  
  Garlic Bread Panzanella Salad is a fabulous, easy and filling salad.
  
  The slightly sweet, slightly tangy balsamic vinaigrette balances the buttery, garlicky bread beautifully.
  
  And the bright tomatoes and peppery arugula give it fabulous depth. One of the things that I love about panzanella is how the bread soaks up the dressing, and the bread in this recipe does it perfectly.
  
  Maybe it’s that I’m craving summer, but when I ate this for lunch, it felt like something I would love to enjoy on the beach, my toes dug in the sand and the sun beating down hard. We’re getting there, folks.
  
  Sarah W. Caron (aka scaron) is a food writer, editor and blogger who writes about family-friendly foods and raising a healthy family at Sarah’s Cucina Bella.
  
  What inspires your cooking? Tell us below!