Crispy Panzanella

I can’t not pretend to love salad. In fact, I order it nearly everywhere I go. I always like to say that you can tell a restaurant not by its main courses, but by how it treats salads and vegetables. My recent favorite is the panzanella. All jokes aside, I love bread, duh. And it in a salad all cubed up is a welcomed edition. But I also love the contrast of the bread with super fresh and crunchy ingredients. It makes it summery and still cozy and warm.

Panzanella is also a great place to put bread that might be on its way out. I like to use two or three day old bread and cube it up. It gets toasty in the oven (not too toasted) and then tossed with fresh vegetables from the garden or fridge. In this case, I chopped up some celery (I always have some on hand for my morning celery juice), cherry tomatoes, zucchini and fresh herbs like basil and Italian parsley. It was a crispy addition to the dinner table.

Adrianna Adarme is a food blogger and author living in Los Angeles, California. She writes the blog A Cozy Kitchen, where she shares comforting, everyday recipes from her kitchen. She recently authored her first cookbook, PANCAKES: 72 Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Perfect Stack. She's a lover of breakfast, pie (and sometimes even pie for breakfast), corgis and cute things. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.