Panzanella – Tuscan Bread Salad
Summer panzanella bread salad is a totally unexpected appetizer that is easy to make from simple, readily available ingredients. It is amazingly tasty and pleasing to the eye. A typical Tuscan summer salad of bread, tomatoes, herbs, and olive oil, it fits perfectly into the idea of a “Mediterranean” diet.
Panzanella is very popular in summer, when fresh tomatoes and herbs are at their best. It is hardly a recipe of “haute” cuisine; it belongs rather to rural peasant tradition. A forerunner of this simple salad may have been mentioned in Giovanni Boccaccio’s immortal Decameron, written in the 14th century. Back then the salad contained only herbs, olive oil, and stale bread soaked in water with vinegar: “wet (washed) bread.”
Originally the salad had no tomatoes, which appeared in Europe only in the 16th century and entered cooking much later. So the salad of tomatoes and bread is not as old as it may seem. In the old days, before the tomato era, peasants prepared soaked bread in advance with vegetables from their gardens: onions, garlic, cucumbers, various herbs. Such a salad mix could keep until the next day.
Traditionally panzanella is made from unsalted Tuscan bread made without yeast, called Pane sciocco, literally “bread without salt.” The point of the dish is that the bread absorbs the liquid from the tomatoes. This is similar to soaking bread in water acidulated with vinegar, which is typical of old recipes. It is important that the Tuscan salad contains onion, herbs, and olive oil, plus a mix of tomatoes that will give juice.
Panzanella should rest in the refrigerator before serving. During this time all the liquid is absorbed by the bread, and the salad becomes practically “dry.” Tomatoes release a lot of liquid, and the dried-out bread soaks it up eagerly.
Bread salad is not simply a salad of tomatoes and bread. It is rather a salad of bread with tomatoes and vegetables, lightly dressed with a “vinaigrette” of olive oil and wine vinegar, or just the fairly tart tomato juice. A similar dressing is used for Caprese salad. Reading recipes for different versions of this salad, you may notice that the constant ingredients can be prepared in very different ways. It may seem that only the bread and its preparation matter, and that is not far from the truth.
Ingredients
4 servings
- Yeast-free bread 1
- Tomatoes (assorted) 1 kg
- Cucumbers 2
- Shallot or red onion 2-3
- Fresh basil 0.5 bunch
- Olive oil 50 ml
- Salt, wine vinegar to taste
Step-by-step recipe
The dish needs no special preparation or exotic ingredients. In vegetable season fresh tomatoes are always available, in all kinds of varieties, sizes, and colors. If you can use only small tomatoes, that is ideal. If you only have large ones, they work perfectly well too. You will need a red onion or shallot, which is fairly sweet. Cucumbers and a little fresh basil complete the vegetable set for panzanella.
Preparing the croutons
Behind the fancy name croutons hide ordinary toasts, or bread fried in oil. Really, beer rusks are just plain croutons. Panzanella needs fairly large pieces of bread. In some recipes the bread is not fried but soaked in water with vinegar, then squeezed out and crumbled into the salad. I didn’t like that. So, to my own taste, I focused on preparing the bread for the salad by frying it, making croutons.
Authentic recipes use Tuscan yeast-free bread without salt. This turned out not to be a problem, since similar bread is baked in large supermarket chains. You just need to ask for it. It can be white bread or a darker one made with whole grain flour.
It is important that the bread is a day old and slightly firm. Fresh bread doesn’t fry well because it contains a lot of moisture and turns soggy instantly, making the salad mushy. If the crust is soft, it will be fine in the salad and you can leave it on. Otherwise it is better to cut it off. Cut the bread into 2.5-3 cm cubes. For 4 servings you will need a full bowl of bread cubes.
The bread cubes can be baked in the oven at 150-160°C, drizzled with olive oil. 15-20 minutes is enough for the surface to become crisp while the crumb stays slightly soft and springy. Croutons can also be fried in a pan. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil and fry the bread over medium heat, stirring constantly. It’s the same idea: when the croutons start to “knock” and a crust forms, they are ready. Let the bread cool.
Preparing the vegetables for the salad
First, peel the red onion and cut it into rings. Any onion has a rather strong taste and aroma, so cover it with cold water for 10-15 minutes. This technique is used in many Italian salads, for example the Sicilian orange salad.
Cut small tomatoes in half and put them in a bowl. Cut large tomatoes in half and remove all the seeds, then dice them. Peel the cucumbers, cut them lengthwise into four pieces, and dice those too. Mix all the tomatoes and cucumbers in a bowl. Drain the onion in a colander and squeeze lightly. Next, and this is important, salt the vegetables. The vegetables will start to release juice and lose moisture. Toss the salted salad and leave it for 15 minutes. Pick the leaves off the basil sprigs and remove the stems. Stack the leaves and cut them into thin strips. Add the basil to the vegetables.
Then, in a small cup, mix olive oil and 1 tsp of wine or balsamic vinegar. Whisk the oil and vinegar; the mixture emulsifies well. It is essentially a “vinaigrette” salad dressing, used in many vegetable salads. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss. Let the salad stand for another 10 minutes.
Assembly
Put the prepared croutons in a large, deep bowl. The pieces of bread should cover the whole bottom in an even layer. Spread all the salad over the croutons: the mix of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, and basil. Pour all the liquid from the salad over the bread.
Now comes the moment that makes panzanella special. The pieces of bread, which lost some moisture while drying and frying, begin to soak up the juice from the salad. After 10-15 minutes the salad can be gently tossed, even turned over thoroughly, so the bread pieces are distributed among the vegetables.
Put the bowl of salad in the refrigerator for half an hour. During this time the croutons will soak up the liquid from the vegetables and the dressing and become soft. The panzanella will be practically “dry,” with very moist pieces of bread, which is the ideal salad. It will also develop an intense aroma of tomatoes and basil. By the way, don’t add any spices to the salad other than ordinary salt.
How to serve
Serve the bread salad chilled, when the aroma of tomatoes is especially strong. Put the appetizer in a salad bowl or a small hemispherical bowl. Toss the salad once more before serving. Add fresh basil leaves.
The dish is excellent as an appetizer or even as a vegetable side for meat. But still, it is an appetizer: fragrant and tasty. This salad can be a light breakfast or lunch, and it goes well with an aperitif at the start of a meal. Panzanella can be made the day before, and after a night in the refrigerator it becomes even tastier and better soaked.
Calories and macros
430 kcal
Serving ≈ 450 g
- Protein12 g11% of kcal
- Fat15 g33% of kcal
- Carbs57 g55% of kcal
100 g96 kcalProtein 2.6 gFat 3.4 gCarbs 12.7 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
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