Panzanella Caprese Plate

5/23/2025

Prep Time: 25 Min
Cook Time: 10 + Min

Yields: 1 Main / 2 App

What You Need

I would highly recommend making the pesto from scratch. When you're featuring such few ingredients, it's ideal that they all be fresh and fab.
This recipe is easy to double or triple if needed. I ate the plate myself for lunch, but it could be a nice noshing plate for 2.
Prep / Cook Time accommodate making fresh pesto. Both will be shorter if using store-bought.

If you're preparing the pesto from scratch, do so first using the recipe provided. If you're using store-bought, move on to the next step.
Begin heating a grill pan set to just below medium heat. Brush both sides of your sourdough slice with EVOO and once your grill is preheated, slap your bread on the grill and grill until both sides are nice and crispy with gorgeous grill marks. Carefully remove your slice and use your garlic to rub every inch of that slice imparting that gorgeous garlic flavour. Trim the crusts and cut your slice in to equal sized squares giving you approximately 9 squares.
Cut your tomatoes in half and brush the flesh sides with EVOO. Get those tomatoes flesh side down on your grill pan and let them sizzle away until nice and charred. Carefully flip them and let them continue on the skin side for another minute or so until blistered & tomatoes have started to go soft. Carefully remove your tomatoes and get them on your cutting board. Season each flesh side with a good pinch of salt, pepper, and pepper flakes.

ASSEMBLY - You can play around here with how you present. I kind of winged it and just started arranging things around the plate, nestling things together and creating a nice, tight arrangement. Arrange your sliced bread around a nice serving plate followed by your gorgeous, grilled tomatoes flesh side up. Cut your bocconcini in half and start nestling them between the bread and tomatoes around the plate. Dollop your pesto around the plate, filling in gaps and also letting some pesto cascade down your tomatoes and / or bocconcini. Next, you can dollop the balsamic reduction around the plate, drizzle it on your tomatoes / bocconcini like I did, or simply give a nice zig-zag drizzle over the entire plate. Grate a generous amount of grana padano over the dish and finish by nestling some beautiful basil leaves around the plate. ENJOY!
Super fun to eat as you can create a different bite each time. A little pesto, cheese, and bread followed by perhaps some grilled tomato, pesto, and cheese. Every bite is delish!