Tuscan panzanella

La “Panzanella” toscana

Tuscan panzanella or marinated bread salad Traditional Tuscan recipe

Panzanella is a typical Tuscan recipe. It was born in Florence and then spread from Florence everywhere. It's a very cheap and simple-to-do recipe. It started out as peasant or farm workers' food. Peasants or farm workers threw nothing away. So if there was any bread left they were used to make this typical marinated bread salad.

Tuscan panzanella - marinated bread salad - the photo shows a bowl filled with bread reduced to tiny pieces, tomato strips, basil lpieces and red onion slices — Tuscan panzanella or marinated bread salad

yeld for 2

200g (7 ounces) good-quality stale bread
400g (14 ounces) ripe but firm tomatoes
120g (4 1/4 ounces) red onion
Some fresh basil leaves
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
Salt
Cucumber if liked

Time:
preparation: 30 minutes
plus soaking time
no cooking
total: 30 minutes
Difficulty:
easy recipe
Nutrition Facts (amount per serving):
Calories: 506 (kCal) 26 % GDA (*) - 2117 (kJ)
Protein: 10.6 (g) 22 % GDA
Total fat: 21.0 (g) 31 % GDA
Total carbohydrate: 73.3 (g) 28 % GDA
Sugars: 11.8 (g) 14 % GDA

Tuscan panzanella recipe

Look at our video for more details. Below step-by-step directions to make panzanella dish at home!

Peel the onion and cut it into thin slices.
Put the onion slices in a bowl and cover with cold water for 30 to 60 minutes to remove its intense flavor.
Cut the bread into slices, put in a bowl and cover with cold water.
Soak until soft.
Soaking time depends on how many days the bread is old.
Peel the tomatoes, remove their seeds and any juice.
Cut the flesh into short and thin strips as you can see in the photo.
Wash the basil and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
When the bread is sodden take pieces of it a little at a time and squeeze them between your hands to remove the excess of water.
Then rub them between your hands to crumble very well as you can see in the photo.
Put all the bread in a large bowl and add all the other ingredients except the vinegar.
Remember to pat dry the onion slices!
Stir with delicacy and put apart in a cool place for about one or two hours.
Add the vinegar just before serving.

Note

- To have the best result choose the ingredients accurately and treat the bread according to the habits of local people as we have just described.
- Tomatoes must be ripe but firm. The better quality they are the more fantastic your salad will taste.
- If you choose fresh young red onions you can avoid to soak them.
- The basil must smell.
- The main ingredient is the bread and you have to choose it very well.
The best choice is Tuscan bread without salt but it's very difficult to find it outside Italy. Prefer country-style loaf, at least a day old. Don't go and buy a loaf to use straight away.
- We usually use the doses you see according to our taste. We like tomatoes very much and so we eat a lot of them in summer, especially in recipes like this one. Obviously you can modify the doses increasing the amount of onions or tomatoes or reducing them.
- Panzanella recipe we are showing you is a classical version. If you like you can add other ingredients such as cucumbers, celery, capers, hard-boiled eggs, grilled bell peppers, anchovies in oil ...
- Serve panzanella as one-plate meal. You can bring it with you on a picnic or at the seaside. It's a typical Tuscan salad to eat cold.
Another tip: serve panzanella to start a typical Italian menu accompanied with assorted salami. You'll astonish your guests, certainly! These doses are enough for more people.

A little history

Tuscan panzanella is a typical summer salad in Italy.
Bread is the main ingredient and Tuscan people use bread very much in all their recipes. They are used to cut the country-style loaf into thin slices, fry them in olive oil and accompany a lot of appetizers. Besides they use these fried slices to serve stewed wild boar or other meat and then ... what about their fantastic bruschetta?
At last we must remember all the Tuscan soups are served with toasted bread ...
Bread has always been important for all social classes. The upper and middle class have ever had no problem with making bread but peasants have always had great difficulty with salt. Once salt was very expensive and so poor people did their best to make bread without salt. We have just told you how no-salt bread was born in Tuscany. Women got better and better to put apart and preserve a piece of raw dough every week for making the bread the following week.
Panzanella was born in Florence many centuries ago. At the beginning there were no tomatoes. They were added only some centuries after. It was a poor recipe made with poor ingredients but upper classe liked it very much.
In Tuscany panzanella is also called: ficattola, panmollo, panmolle.
In Italy you can find other panzanella recipes outside Tuscany but panzanella is unique: remember! The ingredients can be the same but it's different the bread and the way to treat it.

What's the right wine ?

Most people suggest to match panzanella with white wines such as Bianco di Pitigliano (wine of Tuscany) or Ortrugo (wine of Emilia). We suggest to use little vinegar if you like drinking wine.