I’m always ecstatic (really, I get that excited) when I see the board menu bar in our dining halls. That one special little section of the dining hall where I am finally given the opportunity to cook, actually more like assemble, my dinner. Luckily for me, my favorite of the board menus is the most recurrent – the panzanella bar.

Panzanella is a Tuscan bread salad that traditionally contains tomatoes, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and, yes, stale bread. The dining halls put their own spin on it by also providing us with arugula, olives, and pickled onions. When the panzanella has been prepared appropriately, the slightly dense, crusty bread is mollified by the absorption of some of the oil, vinegar, and juices from the vegetables; however, it still gives the salad some texture by retaining a bit of its chewiness.

I find it to be a lovely, well-balanced salad, but am always slightly put off by the bags of pre-cubed, mass-market bread, and also miss an integral part of my meat-loving, quotidian diet: protein. Read how I improve upon the panzanella after the jump.

To fix my stale-bread laden, protein-deficient dish, I make a sandwich. I ditch hard cubes for a warm whole-grain roll, and order a chicken breast from the grill. To my complete shock and pleasure, the last time I ordered from the grill the chicken was actually seasoned and perfectly adorned with crosshatched grill marks. Oh simple joys. Then I simply halve my roll, slice my chicken, dice my tomatoes, and mince some olives. To assemble my sandwich I layer arugula, chicken, diced tomatoes, minced olives, pickles, onions, and torn basil leaves. Finally to finish, I drizzle some of the new balsamic vinaigrette (literally 1/30 the calories of the old, gloppy variety) and crack some fresh pepper over the filling.

And there you have it. A simple reworking of the ingredients already provided by HUDS to make a fresh, fully balanced DIY D-Hall creation. Who knew college cooking could be as simple and as satisfying as unstale bread?