Chili Crisp Panzanella

The best part of eating panzanella is getting a bite of crispy bread cubes that soak up the tangy vinaigrette with juicy tomatoes. Here, I take it up a notch by mixing chili crisp into the golden-brown bread cubes to add the right amount of heat and savory notes to this refreshing salad. You might think adding chili crisp would make the salad spicy. But cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers are hefty and can handle the seasonings without losing their fresh crunch and the warmth of the chili crisp delightfully enhances and complements them. You can use one type of tomato, but I love mixing different sizes and varieties for more textures and colors. The spice of chili crisp in the tangy vinaigrette makes each bite even more satisfying. I recommend using sourdough here, but you can use any bread, as long as it can get browned and crispy, like croutons.

This recipe was excerpted from 'Chili Crisp' by James Park. Buy the full book on Amazon. We’ve selected this book as one of the best cookbooks of 2023.