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Panzanella (Bread and Tomato Salad)
Panzanella is a versatile bread-and-tomato salad that’s perfect for summertime when you might have an abundance of ripe tomatoes and perhaps some stale bread — crusty artisan-style sourdough is the perfect choice for this dish! Also called panmolle, this salad is from Tuscany, but has variations throughout the Mediterranean.
This salad is so tasty you may just go buy extra tomatoes and bake a loaf of bread specifically for it, but panzanella is ultimately an anti food-waste recipe meant to use up stale bread and over-ripe tomatoes. Bottom line is that you should feel free to use whatever you have in your kitchen. Tomatoes, onion, basil, bread chunks, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper seem to be the fundamental ingredients; while cucumber, pepper, garlic, bread crumbs, and dijon mustard make appearances in different variations.
Prepping the ingredients: tomatoes, green pepper, onion, basil, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, bread, bread crumbs
For a truly in-depth dive into panzanella, check out this Serious Eats article that argues oven or toaster dried bread works better than staled bread for retaining the right amount of chew. I also like to use a few tablespoons of bread crumbs to get all the liquids sopped up and distributed.
Here are instructions for making bread crumbs from a Breadtopia FAQ about what to do with loaves of bread that don’t turn out well. I’ve been doing experiments with a new starter, and the sourdough bread slices in this panzanella are an example of too little fermentation, but they still taste great.
Panzanella (Bread and Tomato Salad)
Panzanella is a zingy and delicious tomato-and-bread salad that's perfect for summertime. Using crusty artisan-style sourdough bread takes it up a notch, along with ripe tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, and a variety of vegetables you might have on hand. This recipe makes two servings, but feel free to scale up for big crowds.
Ingredients
Instructions
Panzanella (Bread and Tomato Salad)