Panzanella salad. Recipes and meal ideas in Maria Kalenska blog

Panzanella salad

Do you have the same habit as mine: toss slices of bread into the dripped summer tomatoes and cucumbers salad? From the moment I can remember, every summer I did this ritual with a bowl of salad, not knowing that I was making almost Italian panzanella.

  • Prep time: 10 minutes
  • Cook time: 2 minutes
  • Serves: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Course: salad
  • Cookware: tomato knife
  • Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

  • 1 stale ciabatta
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 2 small cucumbers
  • ½ red sweet onion
  • 10 olives
  • 10 basil leaves
  • 2 lettuce leaves
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • salt

Cooking method

Step 1

Break the bread into small pieces with your hands. Transfer to a bowl, cover with water, and leave for 3 minutes. Squeeze the bread, drain the water, and return the bread to the bowl.

Step 2

Finely chop the onion and add to the bread. Add balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and mix. Dice cucumbers and tomatoes and add to a bowl. Coarsely chop the basil leaves. Add basil and olives to the salad and mix. Place a leaf of lettuce on each plate. Top with salad from a bowl and serve.

Chop vegetables. Panzanella salad Chopping. Panzanella salad. Recipes and meal ideas in Maria Kalenska blog

My tips and tricks:

What if the bread in your house didn’t have time to stale? The answer is simple: take a fresh bread, cut it into cubes, put on a baking sheet and dry the bread in the oven 180˚С for 10-15 minutes. In this case, if you cook panzanella, bread does not need time to soak, it will quickly become soft by itself from the vegetable juices and dressing.

Panzanella salad
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: salad
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 1 stale ciabatta
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 2 small cucumbers
  • ½ red sweet onion
  • 10 olives
  • 10 basil leaves
  • 2 lettuce leaves
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • salt
Cooking method
  1. Break the bread into small pieces with your hands. Transfer to a bowl, cover with water, and leave for 3 minutes. Squeeze the bread, drain the water, and return the bread to the bowl.
  2. Finely chop the onion and add to the bread. Add balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and mix. Dice cucumbers and tomatoes and add to a bowl. Coarsely chop the basil leaves. Add basil and olives to the salad and mix. Place a leaf of lettuce on each plate. Top with salad from a bowl and serve.
My tips and tricks
What if the bread in your house didn’t have time to stale? The answer is simple: take a fresh bread, cut it into cubes, put on a baking sheet and dry the bread in the oven 180˚С for 10-15 minutes. In this case, if you cook panzanella, bread does not need time to soak, it will quickly become soft by itself from the vegetable juices and dressing.