Panzanella Salad

Panzanella Salad is a fantastic classic Italian bread and tomato salad for summer days.  It’s tangy, light, and bursting with herbal notes! Hearty enough for a light lunch or as dinner main dish. 

Earlier this year, I was all set to visit the scenic and vibrant place of Italy. And then I found myself (and most of us) stuck at home trying to spare everyone’s lives from the virus. 

Well, I could have sulked away in my kitchen and just feel terrible, but I didn’t. Instead, I’m bringing Italy right into my kitchen with this summer classic salad, featuring fresh ripe tomatoes, crisp bread, garden veggies, and more! Buon appetito! 

What is Panzanella Salad?

Panzanella salad is a Tuscan salad made with stale bread, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and sometimes basil, all dressed in a light summery vinaigrette. Although, it’s quite interesting to note that tomatoes only made their way into this dish during the 16th century. This bread salad is pretty popular, especially during the summer season. 

Panzanella Ingredients

Stale or toasted bread??? This is perhaps the most commonly asked question for this salad dish. But let’s make a quick rundown first of what you’ll be needing for this salad. 

Bread

For this recipe, I use about 3 cups of stale baguette cut into 1-inches. Toasted bread ACTUALLY works fine with this recipe, too. 

Veggies

 It has most of your favorite summer garden veggies like tomatoes, cucumber, kalamata olives, and fresh basil. And if you think capers are vegetables, then we shall add it to the list as well. 

Panzanella Dressing

The dressing is mighty flavorful. HOWEVER, if you don’t have all the dressing ingredients (which I totally understand given our situation these days), you can go as simple as mixing olive oil, balsamic or apple cider vinegar, and a bit of salt and pepper. Taa-daaah!!! Easy peasy everyday salad. (P.S. Feel free to swap the red wine vinegar with something closer to it like an apple cider vinegar.) 

Others.  Oh, it’s actually just mozzarella cheese and a tablespoon or two of olive oil. 😉 

Recipe Variations

If you want to make the most out of it, feel free to sprinkle it with your own personal touch. These ones below could be good add-ins to this panzanella recipe. 

• Shredded romaine lettuce or some spinach 
• Crumbled bacon bits 
• Cooked chickpeas instead of mozzarella  
• Swap olive or capers with yellow or green bell peppers 
• Corn kernels 
• Diced cooked chicken 
• Cooked shrimp 

What to Serve with Panzanella?

This easy homemade Panzanella Bread Salad is perfect as is for picnics, lunch, or dinner. When making these, I usually pair it with any of these ones below. 

• Marinated Grilled Chicken Breast or basically anything grilled
• Sausage and Peppers 
• Shish Kebab 

More Summer Side Salad Recipes

• Waldorf Salad
• Shrimp Cobb Salad
• Chef Salad
• Tropical Fruit Salad

 

How To Make Panzanella Salad

Heat the oil in a skillet or cast iron over medium heat.  You may add more oil as you cook.  Add bread cubes, let it sit for a minute, then toss frequently. If bread is browning too fast, adjust heat Continue browning for about 8-10 minutes, or until nicely browned. Or preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spread out bread cubes on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Drizzle about 1-2 tablespoons oil and a pinch of salt over the bread cubes.  Then bake in a preheated oven for about 7-10 minutes until dried out and pale golden brown at the edges.  Remove from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack. 

In a small mixing bowl combine, combine tomatoes, onions, bread cubes, cucumber mozzarella, and olives. In a medium bowl combine remaining, garlic, vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt, and black pepper to taste. Add olive oil until the mixture is thickened. Stir in thyme and oregano. Pour dressing over the bowl of tomatoes.  Toss to fully combine, adjust seasoning to taste. Top with capers and basil before serving, if desired.