italian bread salad

I am such a fan of simple, fresh and flavorful salads- especially during the summer months and after falling head over heals with this greek panzanella salad I started making the italian version.

The reason I LOVE a bread salad is because we love good bread in our household. Every week we grab a loaf of rosemary garlic bread at our local farmers market. Sometimes we eat is all while other times we have part of it leftover and little hard and stale (perfect for a salad)

The bread is the star of the salad so a good artisan bread makes all the difference!

I start by cutting up all of the bread into cubes.

And then select some of my favorite vegis and herbs- I am always changing them up depending on what is in season. But for this salad I kept it really simple- tomatoes, red pepper, cucumber and fresh basil herbs.

Besides a deep love bread we also love good cheese! For this salad I use good whole milk mozzarella

and I chop it up into bite sizes chunks.

Then I create a dressing with good extra virgin olive oil, a splash of red whine vinegar, a little bit of dried thyme and oregano and crushed garlic.

Last I mix everything together and drizzle with the dressing.

The salad is so fresh and tasty and a perfect summer side dish.