Panzanella is a rustic Italian style salad that uses stale bread and tomato. From there, many variations to this classic recipe can be found.
When researching this recipe, I found that no two recipes look alike. They all vary based on the bread to tomato ratio, if cheese is used, what other vegetables are used, and even the type of dressing.
I opted to add cucumber but not red onion, which are the most traditional two options for additional vegetables. I stuck with the most traditional cheese and dressing as well, fresh mozzarella and red wine vinaigrette.
Traditionally, panzanella is made with stale bread. Instead, we are going to dry bread out in the oven until it is just crunchy on the outside but still soft on the inside. This allows the bread to soak up the dressing and tomato juices without getting soggy and doesn’t require you to wait days for your bread to go stale.
Panzanella doesn’t keep well, so I have written this recipe to only have two servings. If you do have leftovers, store the bread and dressing separately from the veggies, and wait to add the cheese and basil until served again.
Use this recipe as a guide to produce a salad you love. Do you like a higher ratio of bread, or a higher quantity of juicy tomatoes? Either way, with quality ingredients you’ll have a delicious salad
Variations to the Italian Tomato Panzanella Salad recipe:
- Add peaches or sweet corn for a sweet, summery twist on the classic.
- Add a protein. Chickpeas would be my first vegetarian choice. Shrimp and Salmon are also popular options.
- Add red onion to make it a little more traditional.
- Use grilled vegetables in place of the tomato and cucumber for a totally different spin.
- Make a larger batch of red wine vinaigrette using this recipe.
- Stale bread: If you want to use up some bread that is past its prime, this recipe is perfect. You will want to adjust down the baking time and temp as it is designed for fresh bread which has more moisture.
- 5 oz quality crusty bread, cut into 1 inch cubes (I used homemade sourdough), about 3 cups
- 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
- Pinch kosher salt
- 2 cups mixed tomatoes, cherry tomatoes halved, larger tomatoes cut into wedges, about 12 oz
- ½ cup sliced cucumber
- 2 oz fresh mozzarella, torn
- ¼ cup torn basil leaves
- ¡Red Wine Vinaigrette
- 2 TBS each: red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ½ tsp Dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp each: salt and fresh cracked black pepper
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Toss the bread cubes with the olive oil and in pinch of salt. Spread out on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes. When done they should be crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
- Whisk together all the ingredients for the red wine vinaigrette.
- Add the bread tomatoes, cucumber, basil and mozzarella to a bowl and gently toss. Drizzle with vinaigrette.
This recipe was inspired by Love and Lemons and the Mediterranean Dish.
