Tuscan panzanella, tomato bread salad
Breakfast is universally acknowledged as one of the main meals of the day: milk, coffee, fruit juices, cookies, brioches, and maybe yoghurt, home made jam and, why not, some pizza.
This is nowadays breakfast. In the past, when my grandma was a child, it was totally different. They used to have panzanella (Tuscan bread salad) for breakfast. I love panzanella, because it’s refreshing, light and good, a summer dish… for lunch or dinner, not for breakfast!
Panzanella was summer breakfast, made with leftover bread. During the winter, they used to have polenta to start the day in a glorious way! It used to be adult people’s breakfast, grandma used to have milk instead – since they had a cow and a goat in the farm. Men who went to work in the fields at dawn made the panzanella in a lunch box and brought it with them in a basket. When breakfast time came, they used to eat the panzanella drinking some home made red wine.
Nowadays, panzanella is a refreshing first course to have during the first summer days.
Panzanella, Tuscan bread salad
Ingredients
- 300 g of stale Tuscan bread
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- 1 cucumber
- 1 fresh red onion
- A few leaves of fresh basil
- Salt
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Red wine vinegar
Instructions
- Tear the bread into large pieces, put it in a large bowl and soak it with cold water. They used to make panzanella with leftover homemade baked bread: it had a very different and better flavour and took a lot of time to soak up. Nowadays 5 minutes often would do. The bread will absorb the water like a sponge.
- Slice the onion thinly and collect it on a little bowl. Soak it in cold water, to quench its sharp taste.
- Chop the tomatoes and slice thinly the cucumber.
- When the bread is soft, squeeze it removing all the excess water and crumble it with your hands into a large bowl.
- Dress the bread crumbles with the well-drained onion, the chopped tomatoes, the sliced cucumber and the fresh basil leaves, torn roughly with your hands.
- Season with salt and a few grids of black pepper, then drizzle generously with extra virgin olive oil. Finish with the red wine vinegar to taste: it will brighten the flavour of this bread salad, so don’t be stingy with it.
- Set aside for half an hour in the fridge, then it’s ready to be eaten.
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I’ve written my first acceptance speech, sitting at my tiny desk in the living room with a stained apron, dreaming to wear a red dress and high heels and to stand in front of some of the best food writers, bloggers and editors of our time. I am sure I would have cried, I’m emotional.
stupenda e profumata con il basilico e la cipolla dolce e croccante…
mia zia ci mette anche delle acciughe sotto sale a pezzetti…
grande giulia!
ciao
I really enjoy panzanella salads, particularly on a warm summer’s day. I had no idea that it was once a popular breakfast dish. Beautiful photo!
@ Marco: grazie, che piacere che mi fa vederti qui!! ottima l’idea delle acciughe! ciao
@ Cookin’ Canuck: Grandma surprised me too, when she told me about this peculiar breakfast! ciao!
Never heard about Panzanella as my mom used to cook the traditionnal ‘Tabouleh’ but I love the idea!
I’ve never heard of panzanella before but I must say it looks and sounds fantastic 😀
[…] shuffle the cards. The panzanella, the classic Tuscan salad made with stale bread, tomatoes and cucumbers, is proposed here with the […]
really I very liked your dishes, I work at italian restaraunt in Russia, and I often got ideas of you perfect cusine/ respect!!!!
Thank you Vadim, thank you so much for your feedback! it’s incredible to know that my recipes are sometimes used in a restaurant in Russia, so cool! If you need tips and ideas, just ask, I’ll be happy to help you!
[…] let me clarify one point: panzanella salad, a typical dish of the Tuscan peasant cooking, is made with bread soaked in water. No crunchy […]
[…] perspective on your everyday life that students give you. What for you has always been a Tuscan panzanella, the common summer dish you give for granted in its simplicity, becomes in their eyes – and […]
[…] stale bread, I love the idea of using it till the last crumb not to throw it away. I’ve made panzanella, pappa al pomodoro and even a now new favourite bread pudding cake, but this was the first time I […]
Must make this. Just hope I can find some nice tasting tomatoes !!