COPPERPanzanella recipe
A Tuscan summer salad that turns stale bread, soaked and squeezed, into the base for tomato, onion and basil.
Ingredients
- 300 g stale sourdough
- 700 g very ripe tomatoes
- 1 red onion
- 1 basil
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 4 tbsp olive oil
How to make Panzanella
- Tear the 300 g stale bread into pieces and let it sit in water for a minute, then squeeze it dry, hard, and crumble it into a large bowl.
- Grate half the 700 g tomatoes into a bowl and chop the rest. Salt both and wait ten minutes for the juice to run.
- Slice the red onion thinly and soak it in the 2 tbsp vinegar while you wait; it takes the bite out.
- Add the tomatoes and their juice, the onion and its vinegar to the bread.
- Fold in the 4 tbsp olive oil, a lot of torn basil, salt and pepper.
- Let it sit half an hour so the bread drinks the tomato water before eating.
What is Panzanella?
Panzanella is a traditional dish from Italy, and takes about 50 minutes from start to finish. It is built around very ripe tomatoes and stale sourdough. The recipe below uses 6 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Panzanella take?
At 50 minutes it is quicker than 83% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. The method runs to 6 steps.
Any tips for making Panzanella?
Squeeze the soaked bread really dry: it must soak up the tomato water, not stay soggy with plain water.
How Panzanella compares
Hard to find elsewhere: stale sourdough (1), very ripe tomatoes (1) and basil (2).
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on basil, from other countries.
- Khorovats 🇦🇲 Armenia
- Pastel de choclo 🇨🇱 Chile
- Salade niçoise 🇫🇷 France
Copper documents Italy alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.