I love panzanella salad, so I was really excited to make this and it's delicious! I only had grocery store balsamic, but I've ordered a bottle of the Bona Furtuna and will be looking forward to making this again once it arrives. I am curious how much tomato water your tomatoes gave off to make the vinaigrette. Mine seemed quite juicy and based on your pictures, I might have had twice as much as you. The salad is almost swimming in it. I'm sure the pasta will absorb a lot of it over time, but even after the 30 minutes you suggest waiting, there's still a good pool of it in the bottom of the bowl.
Hi Tom! So glad you enjoyed this one, and I'm excited for you to try the Bona Furtuna balsamic. Great point about the tomato water--I would guess I had about 1/4 to 1/3 cup after salting. I used a mix of cherry tomatoes and heirlooms, and I know the cherry tomatoes tend to give off less moisture than larger varieties. I don't mind a bit of extra vinaigrette, though certainly swimming in it isn't ideal--perhaps next time start by dressing the salad with half and add more as needed? Hope it was tasty nonetheless!
I used all heirlooms in different colors, so I had way more juice than that - easily more than 1/2 cup. Good point about dressing as needed. I just made the vinaigrette in the bowl I was going to build the salad in and dumped everything else in once the pasta was cooked. It was definitely tasty. I amp'd up the vinaigrette a bit with a little tomato powder. Normally I forget I have it, but remembered it yesterday!
Comment: I can't WAIT to try this recipe! Question: if one is making sauce from fresh tomatoes, and there are a lot of fresh tomatoes, when would you incorporate the salting technique? I usually cut up 75-ish pounds of tomatoes before putting them through a spremipomodoro machine to begin sauce during the summer. Should I salt before they are processed? I'm always looking to upgrade my technique! And thanks in advance!
Hi MaryLynn! When making fresh tomato sauces, I cut them up and salt them raw exactly as I do here before draining off the liquid and cooking them (I generally only cook fresh tomato sauces briefly). So yes, I would try salting after cutting and before processing and see how you like it!
I love panzanella salad, so I was really excited to make this and it's delicious! I only had grocery store balsamic, but I've ordered a bottle of the Bona Furtuna and will be looking forward to making this again once it arrives. I am curious how much tomato water your tomatoes gave off to make the vinaigrette. Mine seemed quite juicy and based on your pictures, I might have had twice as much as you. The salad is almost swimming in it. I'm sure the pasta will absorb a lot of it over time, but even after the 30 minutes you suggest waiting, there's still a good pool of it in the bottom of the bowl.
Hi Tom! So glad you enjoyed this one, and I'm excited for you to try the Bona Furtuna balsamic. Great point about the tomato water--I would guess I had about 1/4 to 1/3 cup after salting. I used a mix of cherry tomatoes and heirlooms, and I know the cherry tomatoes tend to give off less moisture than larger varieties. I don't mind a bit of extra vinaigrette, though certainly swimming in it isn't ideal--perhaps next time start by dressing the salad with half and add more as needed? Hope it was tasty nonetheless!
I used all heirlooms in different colors, so I had way more juice than that - easily more than 1/2 cup. Good point about dressing as needed. I just made the vinaigrette in the bowl I was going to build the salad in and dumped everything else in once the pasta was cooked. It was definitely tasty. I amp'd up the vinaigrette a bit with a little tomato powder. Normally I forget I have it, but remembered it yesterday!
Ah, that makes sense! Yeah, the heirlooms can be particularly juicy. Tomato powder sounds excellent!
Comment: I can't WAIT to try this recipe! Question: if one is making sauce from fresh tomatoes, and there are a lot of fresh tomatoes, when would you incorporate the salting technique? I usually cut up 75-ish pounds of tomatoes before putting them through a spremipomodoro machine to begin sauce during the summer. Should I salt before they are processed? I'm always looking to upgrade my technique! And thanks in advance!
Hi MaryLynn! When making fresh tomato sauces, I cut them up and salt them raw exactly as I do here before draining off the liquid and cooking them (I generally only cook fresh tomato sauces briefly). So yes, I would try salting after cutting and before processing and see how you like it!
Thank you! Will test this out!
Beautiful !
Thank you, Sheryl!