A loaf of bread, a jug of balsamic vinegar, and thou

People, if you have home-grown tomatoes, this is a really, really nice thing to do with them before the frost renders tomato season over and done with for another year. I absolutely had to make a batch of panzanella one more time (at least) this year, before we are forced to rely on the tasteless tomato-shaped and colored things you buy at the store. I've been picking at this stuff incessantly since yesterday morning, so what started as an industrial stainless steel bowl full of it is now reduced to a normal-sized Rubbermaid container.

Here's mom's original recipe for Italian Bread Salad (panzanella)

1 1/2 C olive oil
1/2 C white or red wine vinegar
2 1/2 tsp finely chopped garlic
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 ground black pepper
2 lb (l large loaf or 2 small loaves) crusty, firm textured Italian or French bread sliced 1/2 inch thick and torn into 1 inch pieces (24 C)
3 lb firm ripe tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch chunks (9 C)
1 medium-sized red onion (about 8 oz) cut in half lengthwise and sliced thin (1 1/2 C)
3 loosely packed cups fresh basil leaves, chopped coarsely

Put dressing ingredients in a large glass or plastic bowl and whisk until blended. Add remaining ingredients and toss until coated. Let stand at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hours at room temperature, tossing occasionally. Cover and refrigerate to store. Makes 26 cups/20 servings.

Notes (and by now, you can guess these are gonna be extensive):

I was shocked to realize I did not have this entered in my recipe file when I went to look it up. So I consulted the vinegar and oil-spattered original recipe on paper. I just had to laugh at the precision of the ingredient list. This recipe practically begs for imprecision. I don't even follow the recipe any more, which is probably why I didn't type it up. I actually don't make this much at a time (*snorts* yah, hard to believe, I know!). I use a lot less oil. But I make sure it's a good one (Ybarra remains my all-time favorite). I often substitute balsamic vinegar for the red wine vinegar for a richer color and flavor. I use more garlic. More ground pepper. Ground sea salt. And I love to use red and yellow cherry or grape tomatoes. You can toss them in whole and they are chock-full of flavor. As for the bread, I've used day-old bagels, which work wonderfully. Yesterday, I used an entire loaf of 3-cheese bread from Panera Bread. What I always do is lightly toast the bread chunks in the oven until golden brown. Purists might have a fit over this, but that's how I like it.

I take the garlic, part of the oil and part of the vinegar and whirl that in my little food chopper. Much faster.

As for waiting a whole 30 minutes, screw that. I dive right in. But time does mellow and blend the flavors, so that's not a bad idea. As for leaving it out at room temp for 4 hours, sorry. As a veteran of too many food science and bacteriology classes, I consider this to be asking for trouble. 2 hours tops, then pop it into the fridge. You can always warm up a bowl on low in the microwave. This stuff really tastes best at room temp. Refrigeration just kills tomatoes.

The bad thing about this is the basil quickly darkens and looks like crap. It still tastes good, but I like to refresh it with new additions of basil leaves.

If you really want a treat, and more of a main-dish salad, toss in some well-drained fresh mozzarella balls *Homer Simpson salivating noises*.

Like the chile-orange noodles, this is a dish where I can be full, and still be stuffing pieces of this into my mouth. Piggish! But in my opinion, completely excusable.

Be sure everyone close to you eats this too, because you are gonna have garlic breath from hell. For days.