Panzanella
Stale bread salad. Salt the tomatoes first and use the juice they give up as most of the dressing.
- Prep
- 20m
- Cook
- —
- Waiting
- 30m
- Total
- 50m
- Serves
- 4
- Effort
- Easy
Scale
Units
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 800 g | Salt the tomatoes and leave them to drain over a bowl 20m Keep every drop of juice. That is the dressing. | Toss the bread through the tomato juices 5m | Combine and leave 30 minutes before eating 30m The rest is the recipe — the bread has to drink the tomato juice. | |
| 1 tsp | ||||
| 250 g | ||||
| 1/3 cup | Whisk together 3m | |||
| 2 tbsp | ||||
| 1 clove | ||||
| 1/2 | ||||
| 1 | ||||
| a large handful | ||||
-
Salt the tomatoes and leave them to drain over a bowl
20m- ripe tomatoes 800 g
- coarse salt 1 tsp
Keep every drop of juice. That is the dressing.
-
Toss the bread through the tomato juices
5m- from 1 Salt the tomatoes and leave them to drain over a bowl
- stale sourdough 250 g
-
Whisk together
3m- extra virgin olive oil 1/3 cup
- red wine vinegar 2 tbsp
- garlic 1 clove
-
Combine and leave 30 minutes before eating
30m- from 2 Toss the bread through the tomato juices
- from 3 Whisk together
- red onion 1/2
- cucumber 1
- basil a large handful
The rest is the recipe — the bread has to drink the tomato juice.
Salting the tomatoes
Salt draws water out of tomatoes by osmosis, and that water is not waste — it is intensely tomato-flavoured, lightly seasoned, and free. Collect it and the salad needs far less oil and vinegar. It also means the tomato pieces themselves are concentrated rather than watery.
Notes
- Genuinely stale bread. Fresh bread turns to paste on contact.
- Soaking sliced red onion in cold water removes the harsh sulphur compounds without losing the crunch.
- Best 30 minutes after making, and finished the same day. It does not keep.