Italian Tomato Bread Salad
This is a clever Tuscan classic summer salad that makes brilliant use of leftover bread. Stale bread soaks up the juices of ripe tomatoes and a fresh vinaigrette, becoming tender and flavorful—perfectly contrasted with crisp cucumber and onion. Your Geedel hand food chopper quickly prepares all the vegetable ingredients and, with its spinning function, helps control the tomato moisture to ensure a perfectly balanced salad texture.
Ingredients:
300g day-old crusty bread (such as ciabatta), torn into bite-sized pieces
500g ripe, juicy tomatoes
1 cucumber
½ red onion
Handful of fresh basil leaves
For the Vinaigrette:
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 garlic clove
Salt and black pepper
Instructions:
1.Prepare and process the vegetables:
Cut the tomatoes, cucumber, and red onion into large chunks. Install the cross-shaped chopping blade in your Geedel manual food chopper.
Place cucumber and onion chunks in the container, turn the handle to chop into uniform small pieces, and transfer to a large bowl.
Add tomato chunks and pulse a few times to chop into uneven, rustic pieces (to retain more juice).
Key step: Transfer the chopped tomatoes and their juices to the salad spinner basket. Spin the handle a few times to separate and reserve the precious tomato juice (about ¼ cup). Add the tomato pieces to the bowl with the cucumber and onion.
2. Make the flavorful vinaigrette:
Empty the container and switch to the mixing paddle. Add the garlic (cut into chunks), red wine vinegar, salt, and black pepper. Turn the handle to combine.
While the food chopper is running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and the reserved tomato juice through the feed opening. Continue turning until the dressing is emulsified.
3. Combine and soak:
To the vegetables in the large bowl, add the torn bread pieces and hand-torn basil leaves.
Pour all of the emulsified vinaigrette over the mixture and toss thoroughly with your hands or a spoon, ensuring every piece of bread absorbs the liquid.
4. Rest and serve:
Let the salad rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld. Check seasoning before serving and add extra black pepper if desired.
Summary:
This Italian rustic salad embodies the delicious philosophy of making the most of what you have. The Geedel manual vegetable chopper not only prepares ingredients efficiently, but its clever use of the spinning function (to separate and utilize tomato juice) is the finishing touch—ensuring the salad is moist but not watery, perfectly capturing the essence of a Tuscan summer.
