Readers of The Bitten Word cooked every recipe in the September 2013 Bon Appetit magazine. Here's their take on Roasted Pepper Panzanella.
Sara: This dish is tasty and easy to make. Use good, crusty bread, good mozzarella and add basil to the herb mixture for flavor. It can easily be made vegetarian by serving the soppressata on the side. My only complaint: the raw red onion overpowered the dish - I would cut back the amount or sub blanched/lightly pickled red onions.
Amy W: This was OK, not great. On the plus side - I thought that the marinade for the roasted red peppers was quite tasty. I was pretty skeptical about the sopressata, but it added a nice flavor to the peppers without making them meaty. The mozzarella was yummy! But I didn't like it as a panzanella, the bread stayed a little dry and turned gummy. So I would make this again without the bread and use it as a antipasto.
Luann: Four of us tried it. We all liked it, but felt like there was too much bread in proportion to everything else.
Rakhi: Insipid. Easy to put together. Too much crusty bread, not enough attention to portion sizes resulting in too few flavorful elements. Why fresh savory and fresh oregano?
Carmen: I used fresh ingredients from my garden, even made the country style bread and found this to be a good recipe.It would be great with double the dressing, no soppressata and less bread with fresh tomatoes, basil, lemon zest and juice. Serves more than 6!! A do-again.
Christy: The roasted red pepper panzanella is a delicious side dish and one I will certainly make again. The peppers are mild and flavorful, the toasted croutons give the salad crunch and the fresh viniagrette makes it all come together. Even my 18-year-old son liked it! One watch out-this is not a salad to prepare right before you plan to serve it. Follow the directions -- which I didn't -- and roast your peppers ahead of time. You'll thank me for this.
Annie: This was simple and tasty late summer fare ("fresh" was my husband's comment). I used orange peppers and skipped the salumi, which I didn't miss at all (of course, I am a vegetarian). I think It would have been quite good without the mozzarella, too, or with another cheese (goat or even a little shaved pecorino). We ate it right away, but leftovers - croutons kept separate - were a fine lunch two days later with the peppers only a bit softer after marinating in the dressing.
Mary Ann: The sweetness of the roasted peppers combined with the salty soppressata, creamy fresh motzarella, and crunchy texture of the rustic croutons makes this a great summer salad. I'm throwing a handful of cherry tomatoes on top because I have 1,000 of them in my garden!
Julia: This was a good recipe, coming together very easily and pretty quickly (I made the croutons and peppers in advance, then mixed it all together that night). I used it as an appetizer for dinner at my parents' house and my mom said "this is a winner - i would make it for company." What I liked best about it was it made me do things I hadn't done in the kitchen - I cook a fair amount but had never made my own croutons or roasted my own peppers (I'm not opposed to it, just never had a reason to do so). The peppers were delicious - in fact, the final dish was a little light on the peppers because I kept eating them right out of the oven, whoops. The only change I made was using ham instead of the salami, because that's what I had on hand.
Sarah: Fantastic recipe! The croutons are amazing when they soak up the 'dressing,' and it's even better the next day.
Get the recipe for Roasted Pepper Panzanella recipe at Bon Appétit