You know how Christmas goes: you buy loads of food and cakes to enjoy over the festive period, you eat some but you probably overbought, then friends and family buy you even more or you host a party and end up with more than you started with. One thing we’ve often ended up with is panettone and my Panettone Crostini are a great way to get through some leftovers. However, a panettone generally isn’t a small morsel and so you need more than one trick up your sleeve. Italian panzanella is a dish that’s perfect for using up leftover bread, which gave me an idea!

Panzanella is an Italian salad made with chunks of bread and fresh tomatoes. This sweeter breakfast version takes its inspiration from the savoury original, using leftover panettone and winter fruits instead.

You can use any fruits you want really; oranges, blood oranges, apples, pears, and persimmons are good and you can also use grapes, bananas and pretty much anything have lying around.

Any good salad needs a dressing and the best bit about this recipe is that it helps you use up some of that leftover mulled wine too (ahem – if you have any…) to make a mulled wine reduction to drizzle over the top that really makes the whole dish.

Ingredients

• Panettone
• Butter
• Winter fruits
• Mulled wine
• Yoghurt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to toast the panettone. Chop the panettone into chunks no smaller than inch cubes and lay them on a baking tray. Melt some butter and spread over the pieces with a brush. This will help them go crispy without drying out too much. Pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes but make sure you check on them so they don’t burn. Take them out once they’re lovely and golden brown.
2. Put the mulled wine in a small saucepan and let it simmer while you prepare everything else. The longer the better so it has a chance to reduce. Again, keep and eye on it so it doesn’t boil or over-reduce and become too thick.
3. Chop the fruits to make the fruit salad and make sure you’ve dipped pear and apple pieces into slightly salted water to prevent them from going brown.
4. Once the panettone pieces are toasted, serve mixed with the fruit and top with a dollop of natural yoghurt and drizzle over the mulled wine reduction.

Anyone else have a good recipe for using up panettone?