Maryann's panzanella salad

With the wealth of beautiful tomatoes on offer from Blaencamel this year, we have tomatoes at a lot of mealtimes for lunch or with dinner.

An unusual salad which I particularly like is panzanella which is a Tuscan tomato and bread salad and is a great way of using up stale bread.

Ingredients

• 1 small red onion sliced finely
• 4 piquillo peppers from a tin or 2 fresh red peppers roasted, skinned and de seeded
• 1/2 cucumber
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 4 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 ripe tomatoes - heirloom or plum are ideal
• 200g stale bread ( we use ciabatta)
• 1 tbsp capers
• 2 anchovies finely chopped ( leave out if you want it vegetarian)
• 1 small clove garlic
• 8 tblsp olive oil
• Bunch fresh basil

Peel the cucumber remove the seeds and cut into chunks, add salt and leave in a colander to drain.

Cut the tomatoes into large chunky dice, put into a colander over a bowl and give a gentle squeeze to encourage the juices to fall out.

Tear the bread into chunks about the same size as the tomatoes and moisten with the white wine vinegar into a large bowl.

Drain the onions and add to the bowl along with the capers, add the peppers chopped into long thin slices
Add the tomato flesh to the bowl and the cucumber chunks.

Stir the anchovies and crushed garlic into the tomato juices then whisk in the olive oil, season to taste.
Pour on the salad and toss thoroughly, tear the basil leaves and add, stir the salad every 5 mins and leave for around 30 mins to an hour for the flavours to blend.