Panzanella

Panzanella - Italian bread salad

Originally, panzanella is a Tuscan dish for the poor, intended to use up leftovers. But the Italians can turn anything into something delicious, including this bread and tomato salad! Ideal as a summer lunch dish or as an evening meal with a grilled piece of fish, chicken, or good quality buffalo mozzarella.

It’s important to use really ripe tomatoes, go for good quality! Can’t find good tomatoes right now? Then it’s better to wait until summer for this recipe, when they are easier to come by. For colour, it’s nice to use different types of tomatoes, such as yellow cherry tomatoes, coeur de boeuf, and sweet red tomatoes like Monta Rosa. Small sweet cherry tomatoes also work well in this salad.

Use firm, old bread, preferably ciabatta. It should be really dry, so break it into pieces if necessary and let it sit for half a day.

For 4 people

Ingredients: 350 grams of really old and dried firm bread, preferably ciabatta, sourdough, or compact baguette. Torn into pieces of 2 by 2 cm (or sliced) 1 kg of various types of ripe tomatoes 1 small cucumber 80 grams of good quality olives, such as taggiasche olives 1 heaped tablespoon of capers 2 bunches of basil, roughly chopped 2 spring onions, finely chopped 1 finely chopped clove of garlic 80 ml of good quality olive oil 5 tablespoons of red wine vinegar Freshly ground black pepper Salt

Preparation: Toss the dry bread in a large salad bowl with the finely chopped garlic, a pinch of salt, the red wine vinegar, and half of the olive oil. Let it sit for a moment. Meanwhile, peel the cucumber and cut it into cubes (about 1 by 1 cm, or slightly larger). Also slice the spring onions into thin rings and cut the tomatoes into wedges; small tomatoes only need to be halved. Squeeze about 5-6 wedges of tomato over the bread so that the tomato juice runs onto the bread. Don’t throw away the squeezed tomato wedges; they go straight into the salad! Now add the sliced tomatoes, cucumber, olives, capers, basil, spring onions, and the rest of the olive oil to the bread in the bowl. Mix everything well so that the flavours combine. If desired, add a bit more olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper; the salad should be well seasoned. Let it sit for a quarter of an hour in a cool place or in the fridge before serving :)

Enjoy your meal!

By: Marleen

Categories: Kitchen secrets