Panzanella - Tuscan Bread Salad
Panzanella is an Italian bread salad perfect for summer dinners. It’s a typical dish from Tuscany where I lived and trained as a professional classical and contemporary dancer for a few years. Usually, Panzanella is made with unsalted Tuscan bread which I personally do not like too much. Therefore, I have my own version of Panzanella which I would like to share with you. It’s a great dish to avoid food waste because you can use stale bread for it too and it’s vegan in its traditional version!
For 4 persons I use
250 to 350 g of Baguette (or other any other kind of white bread, even stale bread). Check out my Baguette recipe if you haven’t yet!
2 to 3 garlic cloves
Olive oil
1 cucumber
300 g tomatoes (I prefer cherry tomatoes, but you can use whichever tomatoes you like)
1 small onion
Aceto di Vino Bianco
Salt
Pepper
Now these are the ingredients if you want to keep it vegan. You may add peppers, olives, basil… whatever you like! You can get creative with this recipe. I personally like to add some feta cheese to it because of the protein. I know, I know, feta is not an Italian cheese, and I actually do not even use the real feta because I do not like sheep’s milk cheese. I use some cheese made of cowmilk that is just like feta. If you are vegan and want to add protein you may use chickpeas.
Anyway, now here is how to get the salad ready: While I cut the bread in cubes, I slowly heat some olive oil with the crushed garlic in a frying pan. I add the bread cubes and toast them on medium heat until they are golden and crunchy. In the meantime, I peel the cucumber, cut it in cubes as well as the cheese, I cut my cherry tomatoes in half or quarters, and I slice the onion. Then I mix all of it in a big bowl, I add salt and pepper, sometimes some basil leaves, the Aceto and some more olive oil. Very easy, very healthy, vegan without the cheese and a great way to use stale bread and avoid food waste.