Panzanella

stale bread, very ripe tomatoes, let it rest

Prep
20 min
Rest
30 min
Total
20 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy
Rating
4.6 / 5 (124 ratings)

Works only with very ripe tomatoes and bread that's at least two days old. Fresh bread goes mushy within minutes. The bread absorbs the tomato liquid, the olive oil, and the vinegar and becomes the base of the salad, not a crouton. The 30 minutes of resting is what makes it.

Ingredients

For 4 servings.

  • 300 g stale country bread, 2-3 days old (Tuscan unsalted bread if you can find it)
  • 600 g very ripe tomatoes
  • 0.5 medium red onion
  • 1 bunch fresh basil
  • 60 ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 30 ml red wine vinegar
  • to taste salt and black pepper

Method

  1. 1. Prepare the bread

    Tear or cut the bread into rough chunks about 3-4cm. Dampen briefly with cold water, then squeeze firmly to get rid of excess moisture. The bread should be moist but not sodden.

    Don't soak it for long. A quick dip and a good squeeze is enough. Over-soaked bread becomes paste.

  2. 2. Salt the tomatoes

    Dice the tomatoes into chunks and season with a pinch of salt. Let sit in a colander or bowl for 10 minutes. Save the liquid that runs out.

  3. 3. Soften the onion

    Slice the onion very thin and soak in cold water for 10 minutes to take the sharp edge off.

  4. 4. Combine and dress

    Drain the onion. Combine the bread, tomatoes, onion and most of the basil in a large bowl. Pour over the olive oil, vinegar, and some of the reserved tomato liquid. Toss well. Taste and adjust salt, vinegar and oil.

  5. 5. Rest, then serve

    Leave at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. Add the remaining basil leaves just before bringing to the table. Don't refrigerate. Cold dulls the tomato flavour and firms up the bread in the wrong way.

Nutrition per serving

  • 290 kcal
  • Protein: 8g
  • Carbs: 40g
  • Fat: 12g

A bit of history

Panzanella is a Tuscan way of using stale bread and surplus summer tomatoes. Older versions predate tomatoes in Italian cooking entirely: early recipes mention onion, cucumber, vinegar and oil but no tomato at all. The tomato version became standard in central Italy by the 19th century.

The name probably comes from pane (bread) and zanella (a type of bowl). It's not a dressed salad with bread croutons: the bread is the base, and the whole point is that it soaks up the dressing and the tomato juice and becomes something different from what it started as.