Panzanella...Maybe?

According to Fine Cooking, amongst other places, panzanella is an Italian salad that uses chunks of toasted bread to soak up the flavors of the dish. Although none of the recipes that I came across had cooked greens in them, I'm calling this dish a panzanella too. If for no other reason than I just like to say it! (It makes it sound like I just made a really cool, complicated dish, when in reality I just threw a bunch of stuff into a pot and called it good!)

I first cut up half a loaf of sourdough french bread into bite sized chunks and drizzled with olive oil to coat. This was then added to a large pan and "toasted" until just beginning to brown and set aside.

To a large stock pot I added chopped chard stems, onion and garlic scapes with olive oil and sauteed until soft. Next I added one chicken breast chopped into bite sized pieces. Once the chicken was almost fully cooked, I added a few spoonfuls of fire roasted diced tomatoes, salt and black pepper. Then I added chopped hot capicola, chopped kale and the chopped chard leaves along with 1/2 a cup of white wine.  This was covered and allowed to simmer until all of the greens were wilted, about 4 minutes.

To plate this dish, I added a handful of the toasted bread to the bottom of the bowl, topped with a few spoonfuls of the chicken and greens, a few more bread chunks and finished it off with some diced mustard and ale cheddar.

For not having any clear idea of what it was that I was going to do for dinner last night, I'd say this turned out pretty great. It had a bit of heat to it (from the capicola) without being overpowering. The bread was also a wonderful addition and soaked up all of the juices at the bottom of the bowl quite nicely.