Panzanella Salad (Tuscan Bread Salad)
Learn how to make Panzanella salad! A popular salad from northern Italy made with leftover bread, juicy summer tomatoes, cucumbers, and fresh basil. Drizzled over the salad is a simple olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing that brings all the flavors together! It’s rustic Italian cooking at its finest.
If you’ve never heard of putting bread in your salad, I’m here to convince you it’s worth trying!
In a traditional Panzanella salad, you’ll typically find stale bread, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, fresh basil, and a simple red wine vinegar dressing! This rustic Tuscan salad contains simple summer ingredients that make a bright, fresh-tasting salad.
Rather than soaking the bread in vinegar like a traditional Panzanella, I bake the pieces so the edges are crisp and taste more like an elevated crouton. It’s so tasty, and I can’t help but snack on the crispy bread while I prepare this salad!
The History Behind This Famous Italian Salad
This Italian bread salad (aka Panzanella salad) originated in the backcountry of Tuscany as a peasant dish. The idea of bread in a salad was quite odd to many. However, it was a way to avoid waste for lower-income families in central Italy. The result of stale and/or leftover bread had an intentional purpose, which resulted in a delicious Panzanella salad!
Typically the stale bread was tossed into the salad and rehydrated when marinated with olive oil and vinegar! All the ingredients in this salad are simple and humble, like many Italian dishes. But the flavor is bright, fresh, and authentic.
Key Ingredients for Panzanella Salad
One of the best things about Panzanella salad, is the ingredients are as simple as they come. You’ll need a few garden vegetables to make the salad and a few pantry staples for the dressing!
See the recipe card below for the full ingredient list and measurements.
Tomatoes: Panzanella salad can be made with almost any vegetable, but it always involves an Italian staple – tomatoes. I like to use cherry tomatoes because of their perfect bite-size and sweet taste! But you can use other tomatoes as well.
Bread: The star of the show. I used fresh ciabatta, which is my personal favorite! But many Italian use stale or leftover bread, so use whatever you have.
Cucumber: this crunchy vegetable is very typical in Panzanella salads. I love to use English cucumber because the skin is edible and doesn’t need to be peeled!
Red onion: Another traditional ingredient for this salad. A lot of the oniony flavor mellows out as this salad marinates with the dressing. So fear not if you don’t love onions!
Extra virgin olive oil: to give a smooth finish to the dressing and vegetables!
Red wine vinegar: where so much of the dressing flavor comes from. See below for additional kinds of vinegar you can use!
Garlic powder: for flavoring the salad, I used garlic powder because not everyone loves fresh garlic. If you love garlic, use 1-2 garlic cloves finely minced!
How to Make it
Bake the bread pieces. Preheat the oven to 375F and arrange the bread pieces on a sheet pan. Spray or brush them lightly with olive oil or avocado oil to help them crisp. Bake for 8 minutes, or until the edges are golden.
Add the salad ingredients to a bowl. In a medium-sized salad bowl, add the tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, chopped basil, and dressing ingredients with a healthy pinch of salt & black pepper.
Toss & serve. Toss the salad ingredients together, then taste and add additional salt if needed. Let the salad sit while the bread cooks so the flavors can marinate. Then add the baked bread and serve with the salad!
Salad Variations
Add protein. Add grilled chicken, steak, or your favorite fish if you’d like to serve this salad with a little protein! For plant-based protein, you can add garbanzo beans or cannellini beans too.
Add more vegetables. If you’d like to add more vegetables to this salad, add diced red bell pepper, kalamata olives, avocado, fennel, or marinated artichokes!
Switch up the vinegar for the dressing. I love to use red wine vinegar for this salad, and it’s often used in traditional Panzanella salads. But, you can also use different kinds of vinegar, such as traditional balsamic or white balsamic vinegar.
Add more herbs. Typically Panzanella uses fresh basil, but you can also use fresh oregano! It’s one of my favorite herbs to pair with basil for all Italian salads.
Add some parm. Add freshly grated parmesan cheese for a little richness and toss it in with the salad.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Panzanella mean? The word “Panzanella” is said to be a mashup of the Italian words for “bread” and “soup bowl,” which in Italian are “pane” and “zanella.”
Can I make Panzanella in advance? Yes, you can! But, if you want the bread pieces to have a crisp texture, don’t add them until you’re ready to serve the salad. But, make the salad and let the ingredients marinate with the dressing ahead of time until ready to serve!
Can I cook the bread in different ways? If you don’t want to bake the bread, pan-fry it in a skillet until golden and crispy, or grill it!
What to Serve it With
Italian chicken recipes. We love to serve this salad alongside our favorite Italian chicken dishes, such as chicken parmigiana, chicken piccata meatballs, or 15-minute lemon chicken piccata!
Italian vegetarian dishes. If you want to serve this alongside an Italian dish without meat, we love to serve this with our eggplant parmesan, zucchini lasagna, eggplant rollatini, or roasted eggplant meatballs!
Pasta. Another delicious way to serve it would be alongside our sweet & spicy Italian sausage lasagna, spinach lasagna, or this cauliflower baked ziti!
More Italian-Inspired Salads to Try
If you love this Panzanella salad recipe, you might also be a fan of our other Italian-inspired salads like our Tuscan artichoke salad, Italian pasta salad, or this grilled corn and tomato salad.
If you tried this Panzanella Salad (Italian Bread Salad) recipe or any other recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know what you think. I love hearing from you! You can also follow me on PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM, and FACEBOOK for more crave-worthy content.
Panzanella Salad (Italian Bread Salad)
Learn how to make Panzanella salad! A popular salad from northern Italy made with leftover bread, juicy summer tomatoes, cucumbers, and fresh basil. Drizzled over the salad is a simple olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing that brings all the flavors together! It's rustic Italian cooking at its finest.
Ingredients
- 1 cup ciabatta bread, cubed
- 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup cucumbers, diced
- 1/4 cup red onion, sliced or diced
- 2 Tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped
Dressing
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2-3 Tablespoons Red wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1-2 teaspoons honey or maple syrup *optional for some added sweetness
- salt & black pepper to taste
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 375.
-
Bake the bread: arrange the cubed bread on a sheet pan, and brush or spray with a little bit of olive oil or avocado oil to toast them. Bake for 8-10 minutes, flipping them halfway. Remove the bread pieces when they are golden on the edges.
-
Make the salad: in a salad bowl, add the cucumbers, red onion, tomatoes, and fresh basil. Then drizzle the olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic powder, and a healthy pinch of salt & black pepper. If you would like a little touch of sweetness, you can also add honey! Toss the salad together until everything is evenly coated in the herbs and dressing. Taste, and add any additional salt or black pepper if needed until the flavor is just right.
-
Add the bread pieces: when the bread pieces are baked, they should be slightly crispy on the outside but slightly soft when you chew them. Add them to the salad and serve right away!
Did you make this recipe? Share your photos and tag @asimplepalate #asimplepalate.
You May Also Like
That fried bread looks AMAZING! Everything is better with bread 😉
Girl, I completely agree! Bread makes my world go round.