When a tomato salad appears on the table, everyone immediately knows what will happen next. A battle, of course, with a piece of bread as the only weapon. It’s the best way to get to all the delicious juices that pool at the bottom of the salad bowl.
Some smart Italian must have had enough of such lunchtime battles, and so an ingenious tomato salad where stale bread is a key ingredient was born. In addition to bread and tomatoes, a panzanella can also have cucumbers, basil and cubes of fresh cheese. It’s a satisfying salad that works great as a stand-alone dinner dish or a light lunch.
It’s best to use stale bread for this salad, which is first toasted in the oven, since fresh bread would quickly adsorb all the juices and turn to mush.
Ingredients:
400 g of stale white bread
1 kg of mixed heirloom tomatoes
1 cucumber
200 g cubes of fresh cheese in oil
1 small red onion
1 bunch of basil
1 dl olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp salt
1 pinch of pepper
Prepare the tomatoes
1. Roughly cut tomatoes into pieces of approximately the same size.
2. Place a colander over a bowl and add the tomatoes.
3. Sprinkle with two teaspoons of salt and give everything a toss.
4. Leave the tomatoes in the colander for 20 minutes, tossing them occasionally.
5. The tomato juices collecting in the bowl will form the base for the salad dressing
Make the bread cubes
1. Cut the stale bread into cubes,
2. place in a deep baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and toss well.
3. Toast the bread cubes for 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 200 °C, tossing once in between.
Make the dressing
1. Peel the garlic and chop finely.
2. Add vinegar and chopped garlic to the tomato juices that have collected in the bowl under the colander.
3. Slowly pour olive oil into the mixture, stirring constantly.
4. Add a pinch of pepper to the dressing.
Make the salad
1. Peel the cucumber and cut it into thin slices.
2. Peel the red onion and cut it into very thin slices, which is best done with a mandolin.
3. Strip the basil leaves and chop roughly.
4. Toss the toasted bread cubes into a salad bowl and pour over the dressing.
5. Add tomatoes, cheese cubes, sliced cucumber, sliced red onion and basil.
6. Mix everything well and let cool for 30 minutes so that the bread soaks in the juices.
When it comes to salad, peace will reign from now on. Everyone will get their share of the delicious juice-soaked bread.
