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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 authentic traditional classic

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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What is Panzanella?

Panzanella is an Italian salad consisting of summer staples in a poor household: tomatoes, stale bread and olive oil. This type of cucina povera dish is explicitly simple for the reason of its inception: poverty. If you see panzanella recipes with loads of ingredients or expensive ingredients, or those that take more than a few minutes to make, they are not authentic panzanella recipes.

There isn’t even a need for an actual 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.

bruschetta

Panzanella 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 stale bread, do you make your own breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs

Speaking of oil and vinegar, I can’t stress enough that the quality of the extra virgin olive oil and vinegar. Even the type of salt you use 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.

panzanella authentic traditional classic

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!

Panzanella

basic Italian recipe                     serves 2 or 3

FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW

Place the bread into a salad bowl which will accommodate the rest of the ingredients.

cubed stale bread for panzanella salad recipe

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Sprinkle with the salt, drizzle with good quality extra virgin olive oil and wine vinegar and toss again, until well mixed.

cubed stale bread for panzanella salad recipe

Leave for a few minutes so that the juice can soak into the bread cubes, then serve.

bread cube panzanella authentic traditiona

What do you think of panzanella? I hope you love it as much as I do!

Italian bread tomato salad recipe

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More cucina povera recipes ~

  • Minestra – healthy greens and beans
  • Pasta e ceci – small pasta with garbanzo beans and a soupy sauce (can be made dry)
  • Polenta – Italian corn meal based dish

Panzanella: Traditional Italian Bread and Tomato Salad

Servings: 2 servings
Prep Time: 7 minutes
Total Time: 7 minutes
A traditional Italian bread and tomato salad with olive oil and vinegar.
5 from 37 votes

Ingredients

  • 4 medium tomatoes (or large sized)
  • 2 pieces Italian style bread (stale, cubed)
  • 3 basil leaves (fresh, torn into pieces)
  • 1 small cucumber (sliced, optional)
  • sweet onion (cut into pieces, optional)
  • 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (good quality)
  • 2 tsp red wine vinegar
  • ¾ tsp Kosher salt (or sea salt)

Instructions

  • Place the bread into a serving bowl which will accommodate the rest of the ingredients.
  • 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.
  • Leave for a few minutes so that the juice can soak into the bread cubes, then serve.

Notes

  • Use fresh, quality ingredients for the best results.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 | Calories: 264kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 15g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Sodium: 895mg | Potassium: 765mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 2186IU | Vitamin C: 39mg | Calcium: 50mg | Iron: 1mg

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4.95 from 37 votes (37 ratings without comment)

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