Panzanella (Tuscan Bread Salad)
Summer tomato and bread salad — no cooking, no waste.
Panzanella is the Tuscan bread salad: stale bread, ripe tomatoes, oil and vinegar, made to use up a loaf that has gone hard. The technique is entirely in the bread — it is moistened and squeezed out, not left to sit in liquid. Do it properly and you get a salad; do it wrong and you get soup.
Ingredients
- 400g ripe tomatoes
- 200g stale country bread
- 1 small red onion
- Basil
- Red wine vinegar
- Olive oil, salt
Method
- 1
Cut the tomatoes over a bowl so you keep all the juice; salt them.
- 2
Soak the bread briefly in water, squeeze dry and tear into chunks.
- 3
Slice the onion thin and soak in vinegar for 10 minutes.
- 4
Toss everything with olive oil and plenty of basil.
- 5
Rest 30 minutes before eating.
Best made with bread that is two days old and tomatoes sold as "for sauce".
The same loaf, the other dish
- Ribollita — The winter version — the same stale bread, cooked.
The Trattoria Trail
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