It has been quite hot here in Seattle.

Unusually hot.

The type of hot when you’re casually sweating on a regular basis.

You know, just sitting there wondering what to do with yourself… and sweating.

Of course the last thing you want to do is consume hot food, which will make you even hotter.

If ice cream counted as dinner then I would certainly leave it at that.

But, it doesn’t.

Sigh.

So settling for a bread salad is the only reasonable solution to this conundrum.

It’s really not settling though, because bread salad is so flavorful and so easy and so not hot.

Bread salad, or panzanella, involves crunchy bread cubes that have softened a bit by soaking up fresh tomato juices.

There are a few option here, as far as obtaining crunchy bread.

1. Use a stale loaf.

That’s right! A fresh loaf will actually get too soggy. And soggy is never a good thing.

Also, make sure your loaf is nice and rustic. White sandwich bread is a no go here.

2. Toast your bread cubes in the oven.

If you don’t happen to have stale bread on hand and you can’t possibly wait to whip up this recipe, dry out your bread in the oven.

Yeah yeah, I know. Oven = hot… so we have option #3.

3. Grill that bread.

But please, grill slices of bread, not cubes. Unless you want those suckers to fall through the grate, catch on fire, and as a result, catch your eyebrows on fire too.

Now that you have your crunchy bread, toss it with juicy tomatoes, refreshing cucumber, red onion and garlic for some bite, balsamic vinegar for that extra kick of acid, extra virgin olive oil because this is an Italian dish after all, tangy feta and fresh basil. Don’t forget to season season season with S&P.

Dig in and keep cool.

P.S. Be sure to let the salad sit for at least 20 minutes before you stuff your face! The bread needs some time to soak up all those lovely juices.

P.P.S. Serve this summery salad with grilled halibut, or just eat a big bowl by itself.