Cornbread Peach Panzanella
Cornbread cubes, dried peaches, and a honey-butter pan sauce, built in one skillet at camp.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 104
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 180 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Canister stove
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Cornbread mix | 1 box (about 4 cups baked) | bake at home, cube, and dry the cubes in a low oven |
|---|---|---|
| Dried peaches | 1 1/2 cups | diced; sub any dried stone fruit |
| Sun-dried tomatoes | 1 cup | not oil-packed, they leak |
| Butter | 1/2 cup | cubed; ghee if the days are hot |
| Honey | 2 tbsp | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried onion flakes | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried basil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | 1/4 tsp salt, plus more |
Method
- Put the dried peaches, tomatoes, and onion flakes in a bowl or bag. Pour 180 ml of boiled water over them and let them sit ten minutes. They should be plump, not soupy. Drain and keep the liquid.
- Melt the butter in the skillet over the fire. Keep it moving until the milk solids at the bottom go brown and it smells like toast. That takes about four minutes and it goes from brown to burnt fast.
- Pull the pan off the heat. Stir in the honey, the salt, and a splash of the soaking liquid.
- Add the cornbread cubes to the pan and toss until they are coated and warm through, two minutes.
- Off the heat, fold in the drained fruit and tomatoes, the olive oil, and the basil. Pepper it and eat before the bread goes soft.
The original is a summer salad: fresh peaches, heirloom tomatoes, torn basil, cornbread croutons. None of that travels. Dried fruit and sun-dried tomatoes rehydrate into something close enough, and 180 ml of hot water does in ten minutes what a fridge and a farmers market did before. Bake and cube the cornbread at home, then dry it out in a low oven so it survives the drive without molding.
Browned butter is the part worth doing carefully. The solids in the butter toast and turn nutty, and that is the whole dressing. Honey balances the salt from the tomatoes, and the reserved soaking liquid thins the sauce enough to coat every cube. Add the bread last and eat it fast, because cornbread in a warm pan has maybe ten minutes before it stops being croutons and starts being pudding.
Packing
Cornbread cubes ride in a rigid container or they turn to meal. Dried fruit and tomatoes in one bag, butter and honey in small screw-top jars.
Variations
- Skip the butter and use olive oil with the honey for a dairy-free version.
- A handful of hard cheese shaved over the top at the end adds fat and salt.
- Cold-soak the fruit for an hour instead of boiling if you would rather not run the stove twice.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/cornbread-panzanella-peach-browned-butter