Panzanella is a traditional Tuscan salad that uses up stale bread
The cuisine of Tuscany is a cucina povera – a peasant cuisine, and the Tuscans have come up with lots of imaginative uses for leftovers – including stale bread. Panazanella, a tasty stale bread salad, is also found in other parts of central Italy. It’s easy to make yourself and is a great way of using up that stale bread you don't know what to do with – although the flavour is best if you use hearty country bread (supermarket sliced just won’t do).
There are various versions of panzanella in Italy, and households will have their own variations on the recipe. Here’s one of the most popular.
Ingredients:
- 1 clove of garlic
- 4 slices of stale bread – ideally Italian and white
- 2 small red onions
- 1lb of ripe, full flavoured tomatoes
- ½ a cucumber
- 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
- seasoning (salt, fresh ground black pepper)
- some fresh basil
Method
- Peel and half the garlic clove, then rub it round the inside of a salad bowl. Finely slice the onions and cut the tomatoes and cucumber into hearty chunks. Soak the bread until it’s moist – but not squishy, then crumble it into the bowl – together with the onion, tomatoes and cucumber.
- Mix the olive oil and white wine vinegar, add the seasoning, then pour it over the salad. Tear the basil leaves and pop them on the top. (Don’t cut the basil leaves as it impairs their flavour.)
Variations for panzanella
- If you prefer your bread crunchy, then you can toast, rather than soak, the slices and cut them into squares. Let them cool before adding to the salad. You might also like to give the panzanella an extra garlicy flavour: just rub the slices of bread with the halved garlic cloves before toasting them.
- Another variation involves adding anchovies and some sweet yellow pepper (about a quarter of a fresh pepper).
- Mash the garlic up with 2 or 3 anchovy fillets. Then cut the pepper into thin slices. Mix the pepper with the garlic/anchovy mixture and put it into a salad bowl – then proceed as above, with the bread and other salad ingredients.
This salad makes a great starter, or a light lunch. As with so much in Italian cuisine, it’s a very simple recipe – but the key is in the quality of the ingredients. Use lovely, fresh tomatoes and cucumber; the best olive oil you can get; and fresh basil. Try and grow your own basil – you don’t need a garden, just a sunny windowsill.
