This chopped bread and tomato salad is also an incredibly versatile, simple and tasty salad to use up stale bread. For a warm, roasted version of this recipe, check out my winter panzanella salad. I was introduced to Panzanella salad when I used to live in Australia, more than a decade ago. I’ve been making it regularly since then, all year round. It may typically be a warm weather salad, but so long as I have dry or stale bread and tomatoes in the house, classic panzanella salad is a no-brainer. It’s such a great way for us to use up stale sourdough bread, and the ends of bread loaves.
What is Panzanella?
Panzanella is an Italian chopped salad, which consists of chopped stale bread, chopped tomatoes, onions and salad dressing. I also always add basil and cucumber to the salad, and sometimes I like to add parsley, peppers, hard-boiled eggs or even bacon too! Besides this chicken and melon salad, this is one of my favorite healthy salad recipes. This obviously diverges from the simple, classic salad, but as you can see it’s very adaptable and these additions ramp up the flavor several fold! The stale bread absorbs all the flavor from the ingredients. This quintessential summer salad is also known as Panmolle. You could just as easily make a warm winter panzanella salad too for cold weather.
Ingredients to make classic panzanella salad
Toasted bread
Stale bread is what is traditionally used, but I prefer to use toasted bread instead. Fresh (or stale) bread is cut into cubes and toasted in the oven with oil and garlic. I find that this gives me the BEST results for a delicious panzanella. It’s the same technique that I use for my roasted winter panzanella salad as well. I also don’t like to use regular supermarket sandwich bread. A good sourdough loaf, baguettes, or any crusty loaf of bread will work perfectly.
Tomatoes
Summer tomatoes are the best for this panzanella salad for obvious reasons. They just taste that much better. But you can use tomatoes in the winter too even if they don’t taste as sweet. Here, I use heirloom tomatoes. But I also love using cherry tomatoes! Roma tomatoes also work very well. Basically any tomato that tastes good to you will work in this panzanella recipe.
Onions
I like to use red onions, or vidalia onions or shallots. All these onions can be eaten raw, so it’s important to use an onion type that can be enjoyed raw. My personal preference is shallots, because they are sweeter and they have a more subtle sharpness in flavor. Honestly though, I use red onions more often because they are more widely available. But for this recipe, we WANT all that moisture to soak the bread cubes. So salt those tomatoes to draw out the moisture (i.e. more “flavored moisture” to soak the bread), and it makes the tomatoes a little sweeter as well.
Cucumber
This is usually optional, but I LOVE cucumbers in this salad. It’s the main crunchy factor in this salad too.
Basil
Basil is my herb of choice for this salad. But you can also use a combination of basil and parsley.
Salad dressing
A simple garlic lemon dressing will work wonders in a classic panzanella salad. But I do often like it with a balsamic dressing instead though.
Other optional ingredients
Parsley Bell peppers Lettuce Arugula leaves Bacon Boiled eggs
Step four
While the tomatoes are sitting in the bowl, get the dressing for the panzanella salad ready. I love balsamic vinegar, so my dressing of choice is a mustard and balsamic dressing. A simple lemon vinaigrette also works beautifully! Whisk all the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl and set aside.
Step one
Cut up the stale bread into 1 inch sized cubes. This doesn’t have to be precise, just roughly the same size. Don’t make them too small because you want the bread to absorb the moisture, but not turn into mush either. Place the toasted bread cubes in a large bowl. The salt will draw out some of the water in the tomatoes and make them a little sweeter as well. Do NOT throw out the water that is drawn out.
Step five
Slice the onions into thin slices. If the onion is big, cut the slices in half to make them shorter. Chop the cucumber into 1/2 inch cubes as well. I prefer the cucumbers to be a little smaller, but you can also cut them into 1 inch cubes if you like, or even slice them. Totally up to you. Pluck the basil leaves, and roughly slice or chop them.
Step six – Assembling the salad
To the large bowl containing the toasted bread cubes, add the chopped tomatoes, onions, cucumber and basil. Toss to combine. Finally, drizzle about half of the dressing and toss to combine. You can add more dressing if you like, but I find I only need about 1/2 or 2/3 of the dressing for myself. Now, you have to allow the panzanella salad to sit for at least 20 minutes before eating. When you’re ready to eat the salad, you can serve and eat it just as is! Or you can dial up the flavor even more,
Add crumbled feta or goat cheese on top. Add shaved parmesan on top. Or top it with a soft boiled or hard boiled egg for extra protein in your salad.
Variations to the Panzanella salad
This is the recipe for a classic panzanella salad. But feel free to change up the ingredients to make this your own! I’ve previously shared this roasted panzanella salad on the blog. This version involves bread and tomatoes as well, but the tomatoes are roasted to make them sweeter. Along with the tomatoes, I also roasted sweet potatoes and sausages. The tomatoes and sweet potatoes are served with the bread, along with the sausages and some spinach. It’s a more warming salad, perfect for colder months. But you can also make other simple variations.
To keep the recipe vegetarian, you can add some pan fried tofu or marinated tofu to the salad. Add leftover roasted chicken (rotisserie chicken). Pan fried salmon (like this brown butter pan fried salmon) is DELICIOUS in panzanella! Add some salad leaves such as kale, spinach or arugula. Give it a bit of a “Mediterranean” touch by adding olives, artichokes, and feta cheese. For an “East Asian” twist, add spring onions instead of red onions, along with kimchi and a soy sauce dressing. And maybe pair with leftover green curry roast chicken.
This panzanella salad is a classic for a reason! It’s a simple and comforting salad, brimming with flavor. Plus, you can adapt it to your tastes just as easily with slight ingredient variations.
