Deconstructed Supreme Pizza Salad

We get together for “family dinner” with friends of our every month.  It’s one of those magical arrangements where their kids and ours are all perfectly matched age wise and have grown up into best friends.  When we get together the kids all go off and play in their rooms and outside and the adults are left alone to visit and relax.  We hosted this month and I wanted to make something a little different than the usual lasagna or pizza dinner.  The weather has been warm and sunny and it feels like it is time to start moving towards lighter dishes with fresher flavors.  This is my version of a lightened up pizza!  #PepItUp #CollectiveBias

When I was trying to figure out what to call this delicious dish I keep calling it a “pizza salad” or a “desconstructed pizza”, but my friends husband took one look at it and proclaimed it was “panzanella”!  Now for our regular family dinners I’m fine with calling it a pizza salad, but for those times when you really want to impress your guests you can call it panzanella!  How’s that for a fancy sounding dish.  Now I chose to make mine with a grown up flavor palate in mind, but you could easily change it up for the kids by removing whatever ingredients they don’t like and adding those they do.  It’s a pretty simple and straight forward meal that way!

Ingredients

• 1 cup Hormel Pepperoni, diced
• 1/2 cup green pepper, finely diced
• 1 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup finely cubed french bread
• 1/4 cup sliced olives, chopped
• 1/2 cup tomato and onion, finely diced
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, finely diced
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce (tomato soup works great!)

Start by mixing all of your vegetables, pepperoni and bread in a large mixing bowl.  Once they are thoroughly combined drizzle with your tomato sauce until lightly coated.  Mix again until your salad is nicely coated in sauce and then serve in individual cups.