Italian Panzanella Salad

An easy Tuscan salad with fresh vegetables and crunchy bread in a tart vinaigrette create a delicious spin-off of a traditional salad. 

Summer tomatoes are so sweet and delicious right now and it’s sad to think that soon tomato season will be over. But I suppose we need to make the best of it and eat as much as we can including this Panzanella salad 🙂

I tried this recipe at a tomato cooking class at Chef Geoffs recently and it was so quick and summery that I thought I’d whip up a slightly adapted version at home for dinner one night. If you live in the DC area I highly recommend you visit one of Chef Geoff’s locations or Lia’s, which is the Italian counterpart. The food is always awesome and they have a great happy hour too!

They offer cooking classes a couple times a year and since this one highlighted fresh tomatoes, we got to learn how to make an heirloom tomato cocktail sauce, red pepper and tomato sorbet (!), a strong bloody mary, fresh ricotta for crostini, etc.

Panzanella salad comes from the Tuscan region of Italy and was created to use up stale bread that is sitting around the kitchen. This recipe highlights summer vegetables, especially fresh tomatoes!

First, cut up some grape tomatoes (I also had some regular tomatoes hanging around so I threw those in too).

Next, slice dice a red onion into medium to large dice. You don’t have to do this next step but I like to soak them in a little cold water for about 5-7 minutes before adding them to the salad. It takes away some of the bite and harsh flavor and mellows out the taste a bit.

Now, dice up some fresh mozzarella cheese and 2 small cucumbers into big chunks. Since they were the sweet cucumbers I didn’t need to peel the bitter skin. (Oops no pic of cucumber cutting!)

The tomatoes are hidden……can you spot them? Add in 1/4 tsp oregano, 1 tablespoon olive oil, fresh torn basil leaves, and toss.

If you have Italian bread around the house or a big boule it would work wonderfully in here. But alas, all I had was some sliced Tuscan Pane from Trader Joes but it worked! I just toasted up the slices and cut off some of the sides. At the Chef Geoff cooking class, the chef demo’ed the recipe by soaking the bread in ice water before squeezing it into the salad. I like the crispiness of the bread and only like it to get a little soft from the vinaigrette so I nixed that step. I even toasted the bread for a couple minutes to really dry it out.

You can tear the pieces of bread or cut into cubes.

For the vinaigrette I used extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar (red wine vinegar also works but you don’t have to use as much), fresh lemon juice, and dried oregano.

Do not add the dressing until you are getting closer to serving time. You can dress it up to 30 minutes ahead of time. When ready, add vegetables/cheese along with the cubed bread and mix gently. Add in salt at the very end so that it doesn’t create a lot of juice (salt draws out the juice in tomatoes). Now refrigerate!

This stuff is A M A Z I N G. I know the ingredients seem so simple but the dressing and the bread just put this salad over the edge. You could add a protein like grilled chicken or shrimp to make the dish more substantial but I stuck to just the salad and called it a night. The bread definitely helps fill you up!

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Italian Panzanella Salad

Ingredients

• 1 pint grape tomatoes, cut in half
• 2 small cucumbers, medium dice (or 1 large cucumber, peeled and diced)
• 1 cup fresh mozzarella
• Half small red onion (medium dice)
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (3 tablespoons red wine vinegar)
• 1/2 tablespoon + 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 slices Tuscan Pane bread, cut into medium pieces
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• fresh basil leaves

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, place halved tomatoes, diced cucumbers, red onion, and mozzarella cheese. Add in 1/4 tsp dried oregano and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Toss.
2. Toast bread slices and then cut into chunks.
3. In a small container, make dressing with oil, lemon juice, oregano and vinegar and shake vigorously.
4. Add bread to vegetables and cheese along with enough dressing to coat salad. (You can always add more)
5. Tear up fresh basil leaves and toss into salad gently.
6. You can dress salad up to 30 minutes ahead of time.
7. Season with salt at the end.

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