Summer Panzanella

Tonight I've got a quick post about a lovely little (mostly healthy) dinner I cooked up. The healthy part was necessary because I've been extremely lazy lately (darn you deck building!), and quite frankly, I've fallen off the workout wagon. I'll be honest and say I haven't missed it, but I'll be even more honest and say my jello belly surely has. Since I'm also on track to eat thousands of extra calories this week for restaurant week, I decided there was no time like the present to get back on the horse. So despite the 85 degree heat and the relative high humidity in the 5 o'clock sun, I laced up my tennis shoes and went for a run. I won't say it was fun (it most certainly was not), but I did feel better after my 5K was complete, and it only took about an hour and half for my face to stop looking like a beet from overheating. Next time, maybe I'll wait until a little later in the evening to travel down my well worn dirt path. :-)
Anyway, about tonight's dinner. I read about a recipe for an arugula bread salad (the Italian's call any variety of bread salad: Panzanella) recently in Molly Wizenberg's book, A Homemade Life. The recipe stuck with me, since it sounded so simple. I also had arugula growing like crazy in the backyard and had just purchased a big pound of Rainier cherries earlier in the week, so I was mostly set with ingredients. Molly's original recipe goes something like this:

Arugula Bread Salad
6 oz rustic white bread
Olive Oil
1/2 lb cherries, halved and pitted
1/4 tsp pressed or cracked garlic
Balsamic vinegar
Salt
Arugula
Fresh goat cheese, such as Laure Chenel, coarsely crumbled
Black pepper

I won't post all of the instructions (since I want you to go check out Molly's book!), but basically, you toast up some chunked bread in olive oil, add some garlic, toss this with slightly mashed cherries, mix in a quick vinaigrette with balsamic, oil, salt, and pepper, toss in some torn arugula, and top with some crumbled goat cheese.
I followed those basic directions, but because I love tomatoes, I added two chopped ones. I also used orange infused olive oil, and rainier cherries, because I think they're so much better than the tart Bing variety.

Toasting up some bread chunksMixed tomatoes and cherries shortly before light mashingFresh arugula from the gardenOrange olive oil

Paired with a sliced orange, this was one of the better meals I've made for myself in the last few months, and on top of it, it tasted fantastic! I really liked how the bread soaked up the vinaigrette and cherry/tomato juices, and the goat cheese with the herbs added just the right touch of creaminess to contrast the spicy bite of the arugula. This will get added to my frequently used recipes box immediately.

Mmmm, tasty panzanella dinner