STONE FRUIT PANZANELLA SALAD
Panzanella salad is a classic Tuscan bread salad that originates from Cucina Povera (peasant cooking) as a way to use stale bread by soaking it in water and adding to garden vegetables along with olive oil and vinegar.
This version takes stone fruit, croutons, salami and/or prosciutto and makes the salad a bit more hefty and satisfying. I use cherries, plums and nectarines just because they looked the best and were most ripe. I also use "house dressing" since it is almost always in my refrigerator and contains our olive oil and I am a bit lazy. The "recipe" is reprinted below the recipe for Panzanella.
I also added in tomatoes for color and savory, you can chunk up large tomoatoes or use the tiny sweet ones. And even though fresh mozzarella would probably be more authentically Italian, I use blue cheese for funk and bite and it pairs well with the fruit, much like on a cheese plate.
For those who live in Louisville and know Blue Dog Bakery (and for those who don't, Google it and go there now...), I slice and toast their whole wheat, dense and dark-grained flutes for the croutons. The flutes are studded with dried currants and often walnuts. Side note: These flutes are also great slathered with blue cheese, topped with walnuts, run under the broiler to melt the cheese, then draped with thinly sliced prosciutto. Adding bitter marmalade or fig jam before you add the cheese elevates this light years.
I also add pickled hot cherry peppers to the salad (I prefer Calabrian but they are hot, fresno which are less hot, peppadews are least hot) and a bit of the brine but not everyone chases heat like I do. By the way, these peppers would be good on the same cheese plate with the stone fruit, the blue cheese, the flutes, etc...
PANZANELLA RECIPE
3 lbs stone fruit (nectarines, peaches, plums, cherries)
1 cup "house dressing" or a combination of extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar (use your own judgement on quantity, everyone's preferences are different.)
8 oz rustic bread (or 3 Blue Dog flutes) thickly sliced and toasted (I toss them with olive oil in a bowl first.)
2, maybe 3 oz thinly sliced salami or prosciutto
½ cup fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper
Remove pits from fruit and/or slice fruit off pits. Place in a large bowl, season with salt.
Add toasted croutons to bowl with fruit, add some dressing and toss to combine.
Add salami and basil leaves, add more dressing as you want and tossing salad until bread absorbs some of the dressing and softens.
Arrange on a platter, top with salt and pepper and more basil. Best served at room temperature. | 
