Recipe | Capsicum & cannellini panzanella tray bake

What you’ll love about this tray bake, besides the ‘set and forget’ of it, is that you probably already have most of the ingredients in your pantry.

It’s a great one to whack on for visiting vegos – and you can make it vegan by crumbling planty cheese over the top instead of feta. It would also be delish as a side dish with lamb cutlets or the like. You could even nestle in some chicken marylands (leg quarters) and roast for about 40–50 minutes, until the juices run clear.

Panzanella is designed to be made with yesterday’s bread, so anything crusty you need to use up will work perfectly. You can also use any tins of white beans you’ve got handy – so butter beans, borlotti or pochas will work just fine, as will chickpeas.

This tray bake can be prepared a day ahead, sans bread, then gently reheated with the bready bits to serve.

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Serves → 4

Chop + stir → 15 minutes

Set + forget → 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 × 400 g (14 oz) tins cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

400 g (14 oz) tinned or fresh cherry tomatoes

1 small jar (about 200 g/7 oz) roasted red capsicums (peppers), cut into strips, liquor reserved

1 red onion, cut into 1 cm (1/2 in)  wedges, keeping the base intact

6–8 garlic cloves, unpeeled, lightly bruised

1 teaspoon smoked or sweet paprika

1/2 heaped teaspoon salt flakes 

1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper 

small drizzle of honey (or hot honey); optional but excellent

1/4 cup (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil

200 g (7 oz) creamy feta 

150 g (51/2 oz) crusty bread

11/3 cups (50 g) rocket (arugula)

¼ bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped from stem to leaf

Home stretch

crusty bread

lemon wedge

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Method

Heat is on → Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Prepare the tray → While the oven heats up, toss the cannellini beans, cherry tomatoes, capsicum, onion and garlic cloves together in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with the paprika, salt, pepper and honey, if using. Drizzle in half the olive oil and toss to coat. Tip the mixture onto the lined baking tray, holding space in the middle for the feta. Pop the feta block into your mixing bowl and coat in the leftover spicy schmutz, then nestle in the centre of your baking tray, keeping the schmutzy bowl handy.

Get roasting → Slide the tray into the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the beans start to burnish and the garlic softens.

Crunch time → Tear the bread into bits and add to the schmutzy bowl. Drizzle in the remaining olive oil, tossing about to coat with your hands. When your tray’s ready to come out of the oven, grab your oven mitts, pull the tray out and tumble the bread chunks over the bake. Pop your mitts back on, return the tray to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.

Finish strong → When the bread is golden brown and starting to burnish at the edges, remove from the oven and stir half the rocket and all the parsley through. Break up the feta, mixing it through the bake.

Bring it home → Scatter with the remaining rocket, and sprinkle with more salt flakes and freshly cracked pepper from a height. Serve hot or warm, with crusty bread, and lemon wedges on the side to squeeze over for extra tang

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Other recipes from Weeknights with Alice — 

Chat potatoes + green beans + smoked trout + B ’n’ B pickle dressing

Hawker-style red curry eggplant noodle soup