Tuscan bread salad

Serves: 6
Course: Side Dish
Cooking Time: 0 hr 40 mins

Ingredients

  • Half a loaf of ciabatta, torn into chunks
  • 150ml olive oil
  • 2 red peppers
  • 2 yellow peppers
  • 500g cherry vine tomatoes or other ripe tomatoes
  • 1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced.
  • 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
  • A splash of red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 8 salted anchovies finely chopped (optional, but lovely)
  • 15 large green olives, roughly chopped
  • 10 leaves of basil, torn
  • Salt and pepper

1 Preheat your oven to 185 degrees Celsius.

2 Put the bread into a roasting tray and drizzle with a little of the olive oil. Roast for 10 minutes or so, until golden and crunchy.

3 Place the peppers on another tray, drizzle with a little more oil then roast for 20 minutes or so, until soft and slightly charred.

4 Cut the tomatoes in half and put them in a large bowl.

5 Place the onion in a sieve and pour some boiling water on top to soften it a little, then add to the tomatoes, along with the bread.

6 When the peppers are cool, peel, deseed and chop them, reserving any juice which you will sieve and add to the salad.

7 Mix together the garlic, vinegar, honey, anchovies, olives and the remaining olive oil. Season, pour over the salad and add the torn basil.

Paul Flynn

Paul Flynn

Paul Flynn is a chef, restaurateur and contributor to The Irish Times. He and his wife, Máire, run the Tannery restaurant and cookery school in Dungarvan, Co Waterford