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Panzanella is a favorite summer salad and is the perfect solution for stale bread and an overabundance of tomatoes! It’s a delicious Italian Tuscan Bread Salads perfect for summer BBQ’s and cookouts.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe!
Panzanella totally fits my requirement for food being pretty and delicious. The colors are beautiful and the flavor is amazing.
It is also a salad that holds up well in the heat, no lettuce or spinach to wilt which makes it perfect for outdoor dining in the summer
What is Panzanella?
Panzanella is a traditional bread salad from Tuscany, usually made with day old or toasted bread with a combination of fresh, ripe tomatoes, basil, olive oil and vinegar. This salad is also known as Tomato Bread Salad.
Ingredients Needed
- Extra Virgin Olive oil
- French bread. Use a nice crusty bread. You could also Italian bread, ciabatta bread or sourdough bread. Traditionally Panzanella is made with stale bread, we are going to toast our bread so no need to wait until your bread is stale.
- Tomatoes, You want nice ripe tomatoes. I like to use a roma but you can also use cherry tomatoes.
- Cucumber
- Peppers. Use a yellow pepper and red pepper but you could also use an orange one.
- Red onion
- Basil leaves
- Capers
For The Vinaigrette:
- Garlic
- Dijon mustard
- Vinegar. Use white wine or red wine vinegar or Champagne vinegar. You want a lightly flavored oil.
- Black pepper
How to Make Panzanella
- Slice French bread into one inch cubes.
- Heat olive oil in a frying pan and saute cubes of bread until they are toasted and golden brown.
This will smell so good and you will be tempted to eat all of the bread but save it for the salad! The crispy, crunchy bread is perfect for soaking up all the delicious vinaigrette dressing.
- Cut up your vegetables into bite size pieces. Peel the cucumber.
- Chop the basil.
- Combine the ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Mix together the vinaigrette, combining all the ingredients.
- Lightly coat the panzanella salad with the delicious vinaigrette.
- Top salad with capers.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you can’t find or don’t have capers on hand just add some additional salt to taste to the salad. Capers provide a salty, ol slightly lemony flavor to the salad. I love them but I know there are people that don’t care for them. A caper is actually the unopened flower bud from the caper bush. You can also replace them with green or black olives if you like.
Unfortunately panzanella salad does not hold up well the next day as the bread will begin to get soggy within a few hours after the dressing is added. You can prep all the ingredients, cutting up the veggies, make the dressing and toasting the bread and then assemble later if you need to plan ahead.
Variations of Panzanella
- Change up the type of tomato you use. Some multi colored heirloom tomatoes would be pretty and delicious.
- Use different color of peppers such as yellow or green.
- Add in some cheese. Some freshly grated Parmesan, fresh Mozzarella or some feta would be delish.
- Add in some salty sliced olives.
Some more delicious dishes to serve at a summer BBQ include these:
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Panzanella
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 lb. french bread cut into 1 inch cubes (6 cups)
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 2 ripe tomatoes cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 cucumber unpeeled, seeded and sliced 1/2 inch thick
- 1 red bell pepper seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 yellow bell pepper seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1/2 red onion cut in 1/2 and thinly sliced
- 20 large basil leaves coarsley chopped
- 3 Tbsp. capers drained
For the vinaigrette:
- 1 tsp. garlic finely minced
- 1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
- 3 Tbsp. vinegar Champagne or white wine
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper freshly ground
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large saute pan
- Add the bread and salt; cook over low to medium heat, tossing frequently for 10 minutes or until nicely browned
- Add more oil as needed
- For the vinaigrette, whisk all the ingredients together
- In a large bowl, mix the tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, yellow pepper, red onion, basil, and capers
- Add the bread cubes and toss with the vinaigrette
- Season liberally with salt and pepper
- Serve, or allow the salad to sit for about half an hour for the flavors to blend
Tips & Notes:
- Change up the type of tomato you use. Some multi colored heirloom tomatoes would be pretty and delicious.
- Use different color of peppers such as yellow or green.
- Add in some cheese. Some freshly grated Parmesan, fresh Mozzarella or some feta would be delish.
- Add in some salty sliced olives
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Nutrition Facts:
Courtney says
I have to agree, they only way I get new recipes done is if i commit myself to a group. I do love google readers to save recipes but this makes me make them!
as always your picture looks amazing. I want to pull the salad right out of it and eat it.
Melissa says
Glad you liked it! Love that it takes us getting into a group setting to do some things!
The Cat's Pajamas says
I think that’s exactly why I joined the group. I needed to be forced out of my comfort zone. It’s a great idea. I loved the salad as well… and I probably wouldn’t have ever made it because of the bread.
~Cat