With juicy heirloom tomatoes, crisp cubes of grilled bread, cucumber, and contemporary basil, this panzanella recipe is a dish you’ll end up making all summer season lengthy. Serve it as a facet or as a lightweight meal.
Traditional Italian Panzanella Salad
Panzanella is a Tuscan bread salad that mixes crusty bread, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, purple onion, and olive oil—like Caprese Salad, it’s an ideal summer season dish for lunch or as a facet for Grilled Hen Breast. (You may as well make it right into a enjoyable appetizer, like these Grilled Shrimp Panzanella Skewers.) After tossing every little thing in a bowl, you’ll let all of it marinate for a short time to permit the flavors to mix. The juices from the tomatoes blended with the olive oil varieties the dressing, which makes this salad recipe even simpler to place collectively!
Why My Household Adores This Salad
This easy Italian salad has develop into a summer season custom in my house. Right here’s why we like it—and why you’ll too!
- A celebration of summer season. Summer time recipes let contemporary elements shine and that’s what’s greatest about panzanella. Begin with fabulous heirloom tomatoes and aromatic contemporary basil leaves and also you’re already midway there to an ideal salad.
- Crispy bread. If croutons are your favourite a part of a salad, you’ll admire panzanella, the place the toasted bread isn’t only a garnish, however a major part of the recipe.
- Lighter than the standard model. I add solely a tablespoon of olive oil to my panzanella recipe, preserving the energy in examine.
Yield: 8 servings
Serving Measurement: 1 cup
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Flippantly spray bread with olive oil and season with a bit of salt; grill over medium warmth, till toasted and properly browned.
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Take away from warmth and reduce into 1 inch cubes. Put aside.
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In a big bowl, mix the tomatoes, cucumber, purple onion, basil, olive oil, and season liberally with salt and pepper.
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Let it sit for about half-hour to let the flavors mix.
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Add the bread cubes and toss.
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Serve in particular person bowls.
Final Step:
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As a major dish: Servings: 4 • Serving Measurement: 2 cups • Outdated Factors: 4 pts • Factors+: 6 pts
Serving: 1 cup, Energy: 104.3 kcal, Carbohydrates: 17.7 g, Protein: 3.1 g, Fats: 2.9 g, Fiber: 2.2 g
What You’ll Want
The important thing to creating this easy salad is utilizing the freshest prime quality elements. I used ripe tomatoes from my backyard, my selfmade Sourdough Bread Recipe, contemporary basil, and further virgin olive oil.
- Tomatoes – I take pleasure in utilizing colourful heirloom tomatoes as a result of they’re so stunning in a salad, however beefsteak tomatoes can even work.
- Seedless cucumber – Like English cucumbers.
- Crimson onion – Or use shallot for a milder taste.
- Basil – Recent is a should. Dried simply doesn’t style the identical!
- Further virgin olive oil – Plus some EVOO spray for toasting the bread.
- Bread – Whereas I used sourdough, you may as well use French bread or crusty Italian bread.
- Kosher salt and contemporary floor pepper – To season every little thing and produce all of it collectively.
Easy methods to Make Panzanella
Right here’s how simple it’s to make this panzanella recipe!
- Grill the bread. Spray the bread with olive oil and sprinkle it with salt. Grill over medium warmth till it’s toasted, then reduce it into cubes.
- Begin assembling the salad. Toss the tomatoes, cucumber, purple onion, and basil with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Let the salad sit for half-hour.
- End. Add the cubes of bread and toss once more, then serve.
Ideas and Variations
Listed here are a couple of extra pointers and a few methods you possibly can put your personal spin on this panzanella recipe.
- Use day outdated bread. In case you do that, you possibly can skip grilling the bread.Â
- Scoop out the seeds of backyard cucumbers. Have cucumbers out of your backyard? You need to use these in panzanella too! Simply slice them lengthwise after which scoop out the seeds earlier than chopping them.Â
- Add different elements. Sliced black olives, balls of contemporary mozzarella, shaved Parmesan, white beans, cooked and cooled Grilled Eggplant—there are such a lot of choices for this recipe. You may as well add a drizzle of balsamic glaze simply earlier than serving, like I do with this Bruschetta Pasta Salad.
- Plan on consuming it immediately. The bread will get soggy because the salad sits, so that is greatest eaten instantly. If you wish to make panzanella for a celebration, I like to recommend storing the bread individually after which including it simply earlier than serving.
What to Serve With Panzanella
Whereas I really like panzanella as a lightweight lunch or dinner, it’s additionally nice as a facet dish. Right here’s some inspiration.
Correct Storage
If you realize you’re not going to eat the entire salad in a single sitting, solely add the bread to the portion you’ll be consuming immediately. Then, hold the toasted bread in an hermetic container for 1-2 days and retailer the veggie part of the panzanella within the fridge in a separate hermetic container.
When you’ve added the bread, the salad will final a day within the fridge, however the bread will get tender.
