Panzanella: Traditional Italian Bread and Tomato Salad

Panzanella is a traditional Italian tomato and bread salad using stale bread with extra virgin olive oil, vinegar and salt.

Panzanella is a simple Tuscan, peasant dish (cucina povera) which is popular in Italy, using the bounty of tomatoes during the summer, and stale bread which is almost a staple in any Italian kitchen.

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There’s not even a need for a real recipe as it is so simple, but I know that many of you would love to have one. Maybe you even saw this on Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy series?

You may also enjoy this authentic bruschetta recipe.

This is the same type of salad that I usually make in the summer with homegrown tomatoes, but instead of dipping our bread into the juice that’s left in the bowl at the end, panzanella uses stale bread cubes to soak up the tomato juice (oil and vinegar, too) in the salad. Some areas in Italy will soak the bread with water beforehand, but I don’t think that method is quite as tasty.

Speaking of oil and vinegar, I can’t stress enough that the quality of the extra virgin olive oil and vinegar (even the salt) is extremely important. If you use poor quality ingredients, you’ll just wonder what’s so special about this salad, but then, that applies for every recipe. I love a really strong wine vinegar, at minimum 6% aciditiy.

Also, it is of utmost importance to use fresh tomatoes (homegrown or organic, if possible) along with the good quality extra virgin olive oil and wine vinegar. Your panzanella won’t taste anything close to authentic if you try to use Italian dressing from the grocery store, so please don’t be tempted. If you don’t believe me, let me just tell you that there’s no such thing as Italian dressing in Italian grocery stores!

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Panzanella: Traditional Italian Bread and Tomato Salad

Yield: 2 servings

Prep Time: 7 minutes

Total Time: 7 minutes

A traditional Italian bread and tomato salad with olive oil and vinegar.

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Ingredients

• 3 or 4 medium to large tomatoes
• one or two pieces of stale Italian style bread, cubed
• a few fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces
• cucumber, sliced (optional)
• sweet onion, cut into pieces (optional)
• about 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, good quality
• 1 or 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar
• about 3/4 teaspoon of Kosher or sea salt

Instructions

1. Place the bread into a serving bowl which will accommodate the rest of the ingredients.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Sprinkle with the salt, drizzle with the olive oil and vinegar and toss again, until well mixed.
3. Leave for a few minutes so that the juice can soak into the bread cubes, then serve.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 2 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 328Total Fat: 21gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 18gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1152mgCarbohydrates: 32gFiber: 5gSugar: 17gProtein: 5g

Nutrition information is only estimated.

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