Engineered Cooking

1. For the panzanella salad preheat oven to 375 °F. Slice the bacon into ½-inch lardons, once oven has reached 375 °F place lardons into the oven and cook for 12-15 minutes - reserve the bacon fat.

2. While the lardons are cooking, light the grill.

3. In a large bowl place the halved tomatoes and about 1 ½ teaspoons of salt. Gently stir salt through tomatoes.

4. With a pastry brush/kitchen brush, brush the reserved bacon fat onto both sides of each slice of bread and place on a baking sheet.

5. When the bread is grilled on both sides, remove from the heat of the grill. When the bread is cool enough to touch or holding it with tongs, hold garlic clove in hand and rub over bread gently, both sides. Continue until all bread has garlic on it. With a serrated knife, cut the bread into approximately ¾-inch cubes.

6. For the basil vinaigrette, in a food processor pulse the garlic until chopped. Add the basil and pulse until finely chopped. Add the olive oil, Champagne vinegar and crushed red pepper and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Taste the tomatoes to see if you want to use more salt, if tomatoes have released a lot of liquid, pour the liquid from the bowl and set aside in a measuring cup (this will be utilized later).

8. Add mozzarella, basil, grilled bread cubes, bacon lardons, avocado, and arugula to the tomatoes. Toss together until all ingredients are evenly distributed throughout. Add the Champagne vinegar, ¼ cup olive oil, basil vinaigrette and salt. Gently mix together. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

9. Additionally add the reserved tomato water to create the desired moisture content of the salad (¼ cup to ½ cup).