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Each morning, my 7-year old son sneaks outside for “Produce Patrol”. He starts with the strawberry plants, then gradually makes his way over to the tomatoes and lettuce, picking off any specimens he deems ripe enough for immediate consumption. If his bounty includes four strawberries, he washes them and doles one out to each family member. If there are only two, he carefully cuts them in half first, which is no small feat considering the strawberries are no bigger than his thumbnail. His favorite time is mid-August, when the tomatoes are plentiful and he can load his lunch plate with a handful of the sweet little orbs. Until those days of endless caprese salads, we have to satisfy ourselves with pairing bocconcini and fresh basil with jarred sun-dried tomatoes.
The beginning of our summer crop in the awesome raised planters built by my husband.
Last year, I started making one of my favorite summertime breakfast dishes, a Caprese Frittata with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella and Basil. Around the same time, Caramelized Onion and Spinach Olive Oil Quick Bread stole my heart. Why not the combine the two? Out came the onions and spinach, in went the sun-dried tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil. The bread is dense, with a crumbly but moist crumb and filled with the fresh flavors of the season. It should hold us over until those tomatoes make their appearance.
The recipe:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, and extra-virgin olive oil. Whisk well until combined.
Pour the flour mixture into the eggs mixture and stir until just combined. Do not overmix or the bread will become tough. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, bocconcini and basil, and stir until just combined. I found these extra-mini bocconcini at the grocery store (something straight out of Gulliver’s Travels), but you can also use larger bocconcini and cut them into smaller pieces.
Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray. Scoop the batter into the pan and smooth the top.
Okay, the mini bocconcini look like marshmallows in this photo. Try to push past that.
Bake until the top is light golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out dry, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan, and cool completely on a wire rack. Slice and serve.
Other savory quick bread recipes:
Cookin’ Canuck’s Caramelized Onion Spinach Olive Oil Quick Bread
Picky Palate’s Cheesy Pepperoni Pizza Quick Bread
Amanda’s Cookin’s Sunflower Whole Wheat Quick Bread
Seriously Good’s Bacon-Cider-Cheese Quick Bread
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup 2% milk
- 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3/4 cup sliced sun-dried tomatoes
- 3 oz. bocconcini (small fresh mozzarella balls)
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, and extra-virgin olive oil. Whisk well until combined.
- Pour the flour mixture into the eggs mixture and stir until just combined. Do not overmix or the bread will become tough. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, bocconcini and basil, and stir until just combined.
- Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray. Scoop the batter into the pan and smooth the top.
- Bake until the top is light golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out dry, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan, and cool completely on a wire rack. Slice and serve.
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{ 78 comments… read them below or add one }
What a great idea and I love the colors too. My family will love it.
Mary Squires
http://www.olivecrazy.com
Oh my, I am in such garden envy I can’t stand it. I apologize. While I love living along the water, I miss having space for a garden of any sort.
Your bread looks smashing! This is one I can’t wait to try myself.
Thanks, Maureen. I must admit that living along the water sounds wonderful, but I also am very grateful for my little garden.
This bread recipe is brilliant! Awesome idea!
So lovely to have your own garden, including strawberries and such an awesome helper!
CC…this is the most mouthwatering loaf I have come across… bursting with flavors
Thanks for sharing such an awesome summer tea treat 
I love those little mozz pearls!! What a fabulous bread idea!
i love the addition of bocconcini! they’re so cute and delicious – no wonder they work so well in this bread!
Love! Want!
Beautiful and fully flavored bread recipe! I was looking for something with basil and sun dried tomatoes, but this recipe exceeded my expectations!
Cracking up about the brocconcini, my little guy is laying in bed with me and asked….Mom are those marshmallows
Too cute. Your bread looks to die for!!
Thanks, Jenny. I did a double-take when I first looked at the photo. Mini marshmallows – ack!
love this idea! savory breads are so fun to make.
Our basil is going crazy this year. I will have to make this soon!
Dara. Seriously, you should sell this bread. It looks beyond delicous! And your son sounds precious. Any young boy that spilts the backyard goods with all his family members sounds like a boy with great parents.
Aww, thank you, Mike. He’s a pretty sweet little boy.
Looks yummy Dara! Great to pack along on a picnic or concert in the park.
Dear lord, that bread looks utterly sensational! I love that crumbly texture and that it’s PACKED with garden goodies.
This bread looks so fantastic!! What a delicious recipe, love it!
This bread looks incredible. All I keep thinking about is grilling up some chicken and sandwiching it with some avocado. Yummy!
Thank you! As good as the sandwich idea sounds, be aware that this bread has a crumbly quick bread texture, so wouldn’t hold together well as a sandwich – unless there was a knife and fork involved.
What a wonderful post. I can almost see him out there picking in the morning all by himself. This recipe just looks fantastic.
Considering I’m a low carb “diet”, I will live vicariously through you and that picture! Don’t tell anyone, but I sniffed my screen.
Looks amazing Dara. Yum yum!
Your secret’s safe with me.
It would definitely be hard to stop at one piece!
Mmm, that looks really good! Love anything with basil–among all the other things in this bread.
If this were here in front of me I would eat the entire loaf. EVERYTHING I love.
Laughed about ‘Produce Patrol’ – We might have called it ‘Garden Patrol’ and my girls loved it way more than ‘Leaf Patrol’ which was them basically picking up all of the leaves from a cottonwood tree that fell constantly on my lawn. Not daily but sometimes if company were coming and the grass did not need to be cut, I did do that. They wanted to call Social Services but somehow survived that miserable childhood.
What a fantastic idea! I think this would be quite good with a little spoonful of my homemade Tomato Jam.
oh my heaven…I would never be able to stop eating this!
Well that is ri-dic-u-lous…..and needs to be in my mouth
Dara I am so jealous – your garden looks amazing. I remember doing the same as a little one, my parents always had a garden full of veggies and fruit. When we built our home I was head first into my career and I had the landscaper gear our garden to low maintenance now I am so regretting it, I don’t even have a small little area to cultivate. I’ve thought about container gardening but not sure if it would work.
Grace, we used to do some container gardening and had quite a lot of success with it. It’s worth a shot!
I love how you get your son excited about veggies/fruits by doing the Produce Patrol! Fabulous recipe, too!
Your garden is looking just fantastic. I’m having a giggle imagining him out there on produce patrol! Love the looks of the bread; what a great combination of flavors!
Considering he has been known to scour your garden for goodies, I’m sure you can picture him on produce patrol.
This ranks right up there with your Carmelized Onion focaccia. Help me.
I love going on “Produce Patrol”… especially now that I’m waiting for my green tomatoes to turn red!
Love that story about your son!!! Also love this bread – it would be the perfect nibble with some dry white wine or rose in the garden before dinner – definitely think it will be “on the menu” at one of my next gatherings!
Nancy, you’re right. It would be lovely with a glass of white wine. I may have to try that this evening.
Your son sounds absolutely adorable I can see him being so serious cutting the strawberries into equal halves. Love the raised bed and this bread is to die for!!
I want a slice of that now! I can already imagine how wonderful those little pockets of cheese would be! Mmmm…….
How am going to sleep with visions of caprese olive oil bread dancing in my head?
It looks so colorful and scrumptious………..and such a sweet story about your little one.
Thank you, Guava. Those visions will only go away once your make the bread. Go for it!
I LOVE this. Caprese is one of my favourite salads and to put it into a soft quick bread is just brilliant. I will definitely be making this!
Haha…I took a double take at the photo with the “marshmallows.” Love that your 7 year old does garden patrol…too cute. And now to this magnificent bread! All my favorite summer ingredients…how could this be anything but spectacular?????
Thanks, Liz. I did a double-take myself when I first looked at that photo.
i am DYING over this – must, must, MUST make!!
Dara, I love this idea for a quick bread. Giggling over the thought of your son cutting those teeny tiny strawberries in half and rationing them. Soooo cute!
Thanks, Marla. He’s pretty diligent about the whole process.
What an absolutely fantastic idea! This bread looks heavenly.
This sounds incredible! And I cant help but think of a savory french toast with a few pieces! Your garden looks like it’s doing awesome. How fun for your little helper.
Wow – what a show-stopper! I’ll be trying this recipe very soon. Thanks for the great post!
Goodness gracious! That is so yummy looking! I would have a really hard time not gobbling up this bread in .2 seconds! hehe
How smart to put the mozzarella in the bread like that! I’m sold- making this soon!
You have such a lovely garden there! Makes me envious. For me – I don’t think I would have enough patient to grow so many different kinds of things! You go!
Have a Fabulous day!
Jen http://www.passion4food.ca
Just scrolling through looking at the photos, I totally thought the bocconcini were mini marshmallows! Ha! I was like “that’s odd…” and then I read the whole post! I’ve never seen those baby mozzarella balls in my grocery store! I must find them! They are so cute!
I can’t believe how yummy this bread looks! I love your raised veggie/herb beds!
Wow! This bread looks amazing… and I never saw these extra-mini-bocconcini here in Italy! Here mini bocconcini (more or less 10 g) are called “ciliegine” (“little cherries”), but yours seems to me even smaller… very Gulliver’s Travels, indeed!
ohh my gooodness, this looks amazing! I adore fresh bread in all its basic loveliness, but throw in that gorgeous combo of flavours and you are on to a sure fire winner of a recipe
Delicious!
This looks delicious!
Dara, your son sounds absolutely adorable – he must be so excited to see your beautiful garden producing all those gorgeous vegetables. This quick bread sounds and looks lovely!
This looks incredible! I could even eat this for breakfast smothered in warm butter…yum!
Hello dear friend….wow this looks so good. I love the thought of your little one patrolling the garden too. Precious. Thank you so much for sharing with me tonight…I’m salivating…and thank you for all your kind words on my own blog. I appreciate you! Have a blessed week!
Your garden is so lush and beautiful! I’ m back to just my herbs here after being spoiled by my in-laws vegetable garden for a month:) Your Caprese bread is a great idea and looks delicious, Dara:)
I just had to tell you that I haven’t stopped thinking about this bread since I saw it yesterday. It is definitely going to be made in my house soon!!
What a unique idea for a bread! I love caprese salad and to combine those flavors into this form is genius!
I swear you come up with the best combinations! This looks excellent. I’d like to be on produce patrol in your yard
Oh my goodness…what a delicious loaf! Amazing!
This looks like one of the most amazing breads I’ve ever seen! I can almost taste it. Love those little balls of mozzarella!
Caprese anything is definitely a favorite in my book! The bocconcini are adorable…I could probably eat the whole bowl by myself.
Looks delicious! And with the little balls of cheese, that’s just fantastic
Oooh, this looks yummy. I could probably eat the whole loaf by myself.
Made this yesterday and….IT ROCKED MY WORLD! Holy moly was this delicious! The flavors were so good and the bread sort of crumbled on the edges and moist inside. I cubed them up and serve them as appetizers to my guests. they adored them! Thanks so much!
First thing first: Your son is a total gem! What a cutie, if only more people were like him =)
And: Awesome bread, but that goes without saying
I’ve made this bread twice…all of the ingredients I love. It comes out a little dry and like biscuits…how can I prevent this? I love the flavor…thank you.
This looks amazing!
I can hardly wait to make the Caprese Olive Oil Bread with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Bocconcini & Basil. It sounds delicious!
Can’t wait to try this, sounds yummy!!!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
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