Grilled Shrimp Panzanella Skewers, layered with summer peaches, tomatoes, and sourdough bread, finished with balsamic and fresh basil.
Grilled Shrimp Panzanella Skewers
Panzanella is a traditional Italian bread salad, where cubes of (usually stale) bread add some heft to fresh summer vegetables at peak ripeness. Here, the bread is more of a background player with its crunchiness providing a great counterpoint to the juicy, sweet grilled fruit and shrimp. More grilled shrimp skewers you will love are these Grilled Shrimp Scampi Skewers and Grilled Pesto Shrimp Skewers.
What bread do you use for Panzanella?
My favorite bread for Panzanella is sourdough, but you could also use baguette or ciabatta. Typically, you want a crusty, hearty bread that’s about a day old so that it doesn’t get soggy from the produce and vinegar. Since we’re grilling these skewers, the bread will get toasty and hard anyways.
You could easily double the bread if you want or leave it out altogether, but honestly, it’s my favorite part! Panzanella is a bread salad, after all.
What to Serve with Panzanella
To complete your dinner, serve this with Italian Pasta Salad, these Lemon- Parsley Potato Foil Packets or this Grilled Corn Salad with Feta. If you want an extra veggie, throw some zucchini on the grill while you’re cooking the kabobs.
Variations:
- If you’re gluten-free, use your favorite gluten-free bread.
- Swap the sourdough for ciabatta or baguette.
- Sub cherry tomatoes for the grape tomatoes, or use bigger tomatoes and cut them into smaller pieces.
- Switch out the balsamic for red wine vinegar.
- If you’re vegetarian, skip the shrimp and use extra peaches and tomatoes.
- If you want to take the food off the skewers and serve it as a Panzanella salad, add some cucumbers, mozzarella, and kalamata olives.
More Skewer Recipes You’ll Love:
- Grilled Cilantro Lime Shrimp Kebabs
- Grilled Chicken Kabobs with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce
- Bang Bang Shrimp Skewers
- Grilled Salmon Kebabs
- Steak Kebabs with Chimichurri
Grilled Shrimp Panzanella Skewers
Ingredients
- 32 jumbo peeled shrimp, 18 oz total
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 2 large peaches
- 1 cup grape tomatoes
- 1 thick slice sourdough bread, cut into 3/4-inch cubes (2 oz)
- 16 long wooden or metal skewers
- Cooking spray
- 1 handful fresh basil leaves
- Balsamic vinegar or glaze, for serving
Instructions
- Pat the shrimp dry and season both sides with salt.
- Cut the peaches into thick wedges (6 to 8 per peach, depending on size).
- If using large tomatoes, core them and cut them into wedges approximately the same size.
- Thread the shrimp, peaches, tomatoes, and cubed bread onto doubled skewers, alternating as you like but beginning and ending each skewer with shrimp, for a total of 8 kabobs. Lightly spray with cooking oil.
- Preheat the grill with high heat and oil the grates.
- Grill the kabobs for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until the shrimp are pink and firm and the bread is lightly charred. The tomatoes may be bursting.
- To serve, place the kabobs on a platter. Thinly slice or tear the basil and sprinkle it over everything with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
