Impressive Italian Bread Salad

Pretty impressive for a beach BBQ

I like impressing people with salad. Why waste time on a fancy dessert or spend money on an expensive cut of meat, when a salad will do? Think about it. Who usually brings a kick ass salad to a dinner party? This gal (and yes, I have two thumbs pointed at myself right now).

A couple of weekends ago, we were invited to a BBQ on Alki Beach in West Seattle. They bring the burgers, we bring the salad. Perfect! I wanted to make an Italian Bread Salad because 1. I've never made one before and 2. It kinda seems like something you'd bring to a BBQ. 

But, here's the problem with bread salad - You're supposed to use stale Italian or French bread. If you've ever been to our house, you know bread doesn't last very long. Either I'm slathering butter on it, or we're frantically trying to make enough peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to keep the kids from mutiny. 

I finally found a recipe from Cook's Illustrated that worked. Instead of waiting for your bread to get stale, you just cut it up and toast it. I know what you're thinking - Those folks at Cook's Illustrated are geniuses. Okay, maybe that last line was a little sarcastic, but they are pretty damn good at what they do. 

As I suspected the salad was a hit, although I think kids were more impressed with the watermelon. Still, I'm a fan and would make it again. Especially if I'm trying to impress someone. 

The recipe goes something like this: 

First off - Don't ever, ever try and make this in advance. The bread will just get soft and you won't be impressing anyone. You can get all the ingredients ready and toss together at the last minute. 

- Cut up 2/3rds of a loaf of Italian bread into bite size squares. About six cups. 

- Toss bread in olive oil and kosher salt and toast in a 400 degree oven until bread is golden brown. Let cool. 

- Core, seed, chop and drain* about 5 medium sized tomatoes. If you're using Roma tomatoes (don't) then you'll need about 8. 

- Peel, seed and slice one cucumber.

- Thinly slice one shallot, from the bottom up so it creates ringlets.

- Chop about 7 basil leaves. 

- Mix together the following and toss with bread squares

        - 6 Tbs olive oil

        - 3 Tbs red wine vinegar

        - Pepper and Salt

- Add tomatoes, cucumbers, shallots and basil and serve immediately

*The Cook's Illustrated recipe tells you to salt the tomatoes and then let them sit and drain, and then use the leftover juices as part of the dressing, but I didn't get very much juice out of them and it just seemed like a waste of time and dishware.