Brett Marks knocked a single to right field for the 100 th hit of his career in the top of the 5 th, but the threat was eliminated with a double play one batter later. Sam Dralle stabilized things for the Highlanders, shutting Keystone down over the next couple innings and giving the offense a chance to get back in the game.

The Giants took a 3-0 lead, tacking on a run in the 1 st, 2 nd, and 3 rd innings. In a must-win game against the powerhouse Keystone Giants, the Highlanders fought hard, but simply ran out of firepower against Keystone ace, Nathan Hinkley. The 2019 squad tied the all-time wins record (which they set last season), won the first CSAC playoff game in program history, and also reached the CSAC championship for the first time. Despite the immediate sting of a loss, the Highlanders season can only be looked at as a resounding success. With a drizzle of olive oil, copious herbs and BerensвЂ™ mozzarella, our take on her panzanella is perfection, even when our produce isnвЂ™t.LA PLUME, PA- The Highlanders record-setting 2019 season ended Saturday afternoon as they fell 5-2 to Keystone College in the CSAC Championship. The warm bread, torn into irregular pieces, haphazardly soaked up the flavor of the released juices, leaving contrasting crunchy, chewy and soggy pieces. We didnвЂ™t want to turn on the oven for a summer salad, so we toasted the bread in a skillet before adding it to the tomatoes. We also salted the tomatoes, which ensured they were thoroughly seasoned and would release juices to help dress the other ingredients. One difference: Instead of adding vinegar to the tomatoes, we used it to quick-pickle red onions, which added the same bright acidic pop, but also a light crunch. Adding this to her panzanella pushed the salad entirely over the top.ДЇor our version, we kept most of BerensвЂ™ ideas. She has a hack for turning basic supermarket mozzarella into a burrata-like cheese simply by tearing it into pieces and tossing it with heavy cream and lemon zest.

Berens compares it to the bread in French onion soup, which sports comforting soft bits balanced by crunchy-crispy edges. She also made sure the bread was well toasted, which both primes it for soaking up more of the oil and juices and ensures it has crispness that contrasts with the other, more tender ingredients.

Her recipe calls for splashing them with vinegar to heighten their acidity, a key flavor in balancing the bread and rich olive oil. Eventually, cooks further improved the dish by toasting the bread and tossing in handfuls of wild herbs as if they were salad greens.Д«erens started with the tomatoes.

When tomatoes entered Italian cuisine, they added a balancing sweet acidity. To do that, we started by looking back at the saladвЂ™s origins and how chef, farmer and вЂњRuffageвЂќ author Abra Berens used that information to reinvent it.ДЇirst recorded in medieval Italian texts as pan lavato, or вЂњwashed bread,вЂќ panzanella historically was made from little more than day-old bread that was soaked in water and squeezed dry, then crumbled and mixed with olive oil and whatever vegetables were available. So at Milk Street, we knew that getting reliable results would mean rebuilding this iconic dish to find fresh ways to deliver the same vibrant flavors and satisfying textures. Assembling the perfect panzanella-that classic salad of rustic bread doused in olive oil and the juices of sweet summer tomatoes-is no effort in Italy, where produce is practically a Platonic form.

Christopher panzarella