SALADS FOR YOUR PIZZA
Yes, we are doing a salad. Before you roll your eyes, this will not be your typical salad. We believe that salads don’t have to be uninspiring. Salads are opportunities for creativity, especially when challenging yourself to only use what you have on hand. Just take a look at two of our previous salad recipes – Caesar salad and Orange Ginger Ramen salad.
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Panzanella Salad
A Panzanella Salad is a Tuscan tossed salad made with Italian bread, assorted chopped vegetables, and an Italian dressing. When Mama Paige sent me this recipe, I thought, “Where’s the lettuce?”. Typically, I like my salads with tons of leafy greens, but this salad goes nicely with a pizza or pasta bake. In other words, don’t knock it until you try it!
Panzanella Salad
Ingredients
- 6 C. Italian bread, cubed into 1-2 inch pieces
- ¼ C. olive oil
- ½ Tsp. Italian seasoning
- 1½ C. black olives, pitted and halved
- ½ C. red onion, sliced thin into 1 -inch pieces
- 1½ C. cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ C. green bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1½ C. cucumber, sliced and slices halved or quartereds
- 2/3 C. olive oil
- ½ C. red wine vinegar
- 1 Tsp. lemon juice
- 1 Tsp. garlic powder
- 1 Tsp. oregano leaves, ground
- 1 Tsp. basil leaves, ground
- ½ Tsp. onion powder
- ¾ Tsp. salt
- ¼ Tsp. cayenne pepper
- ¼ tsp Black Pepper, ground
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Prepare bread cubes: Whisk together ¼ cup of olive oil and ½ teaspoon of Italian seasoning in a large mixing bowl. Toss in bread cubes to coat. Spread coated bread cubes on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Flip the cubes and bake for another 10 minutes until they are crisp brown and crisp. Set aside.
- While bread cubes are toasting, whisk together all ingredients for salad dressing in a small bowl. Set aside.
- In large salad bowl, toss together black olives, red onions, cherry tomato halves, green bell pepper and cucumber. Add salad dressing to vegetables and toss.
- Just before serving, stir vegetables – redistributing any salad dressing that may have settled. Then, add baked bread cubes.
Left Over Pizza Salad
Mama Paige came up with this recipe after trying to figure out what to to do with leftover veggies from a family pizza night. We were not sure how it would turn out, but it was so good we promised ourselves that we would have it again. The star ingredient is the grilled pineapple. This recipe is an example of repurposing ingredients to create something delicious. We estimated our proportions. Feel free to adjust your proportions to what you have on hand.
Left Over Pizza Salad
Ingredients
- ½ C grilled fresh pineapple, cut into bite-sized pieces.
- ¼ C. corn kernels, cut fresh from the cob (about 1 ear of corn)
- ¼ C. white onion, diced
- ¼ c green bell pepper, diced
- 1 Tbsp. candied jalapeno peppers, minced
- ½ C button mushrooms. sliced thinly.
- ½ C. grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 Tbsp. dried parsley leaves
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- ¼ Tsp. salt
- ½ Tsp. white sugar
Instructions
- Place all ingredients together in a medium size bowl.
- Toss gently.
- Can be used as a salad or as a topping for toasted/ grilled Italian bread
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