These Panzanella Skewers are somewhat of a Panzanella Salad deconstructed. BBQing the skewers makes for crispy bread and tasty grilled vegetables.
This makes for a fun, casual meal. The Ciabatta cubes get toasted to be like giant croutons but softer.
You can switch up the vegetables to suit your taste and what is in season or on hand.
There are so many different types of sausages these days just changing up the sausage flavour will give you interesting variations on these. The recipe is written for classic Italian flavours but I have also made them with Chicken/Feta and Spinach sausage.
The dressing I used was a fairly simple Oil and Vinegar one with some thyme flavouring. You could also use just a simple garlic oil or any commercial dressing flavour that you like.
Marinade for about 30 minutes minimum but this is very forgiving. You can go up to 24 hours turning periodically. So - make ahead!
You can serve this over pasta tossed withsome garlic oil or dressing of your choice. They are good over a bed of greens and they are also good on their own.
The recipe assumes 2 skewers per person but you may find that 1 skewer per person is enough depending on what else you are serving.
We have been having fun with these skewers all summer on the patio. I have a range of sausage flavours in my freezer right now including Chicken Curry, Jalapeno and Cheddar filled.
I would suggest that the more flavourful the sausage variety the milder you want the marinade to be so you don't get competing flavours.
Wine Pairing for Panzanella Skewers
The skewers have fairly robust flavours so you can go with a fairly robust wine. Soave or Pinot Grigio would work for whites. Chianti or Primitivo would work for reds.
Panzanella Skewers
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Save Print Pin FacebookEquipment
- BBQ or broiler
Ingredients
- 8 bamboo skewers about 12" long
- 4 Italian sausages
- 1 red bell pepper
- 16 cremini mushrooms
- ½ medium red onion
- 16 grape tomatoes
- 16 fresh basil leaves optional
- 16 2" cubes Ciabatta bread
- ½ cup Light Oil and Vinegar or Italian salad dressing (I used Feige's Oil and Vinegar Vinaigrette)
Instructions
- Pan fry the sausages if they are not already cooked. About 12 minutes over medium high heat turning occasionally.
- Cut the pepper into 16 even sized pieces. Halve the onion horizontally, then halve one piece vertically. Separate the layers of the onion so you have 16 chunks of onion.
- Toss the skewer ingredients in a bowl with the marinade and allow to marinate in fridge for 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.
- Thread a skewer starting and ending with a Ciabatta cube. Alternate ingredients on skewer until you have 2 pieces of sausage, 2 mushrooms, 2 tomatoes, 2 pepper and 2 onion pieces and 2 basil leaves. Repeat until you have 8 skewers prepared.
- You can grill immediately or you can put skewers into a sealable container and pour runoff dressing over the skewers. Skewers will hold up to 24 hours. Turn container periodically to redistribute the dressing.
- Prepare BBQ grill. Grill skewer over medium low heat with lid down. Grill for 7-10 minutes turning skewers half way through. Cooking time may vary depending on heat of your grill. Check periodically. When mushroom are cooked and bread is crispy and golden or slightly charred remove skewers from the grill.
- Serve over pasta, salad greens or on their own.
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