Panzanella Salad – Tastes of Tuscany Dinner
As my readers know by now, my husband and I have lead an active Supper Club for nearly 36 years. Way back during our newlywed days we decided to invite couples to join us for regular themed dinner parties. We choose couples who enjoy cooking and experimenting with all types of cuisine. We are a “cooking group”…not a “get together at a restaurant and let someone else cook for you” group. Not that we don’t love going out and trying new restaurants.
The basic format we use for our dinners has remained the same. All of our dinners include four couples. We settled on this amount of people because most of us have plenty of dinner ware and service for at least 8. Additionally, since we all contribute something to the meal, this allows for at least a four course dinner.
We’ve done every imaginable theme possible over these 36 years. Sometimes it is based on recent travels, like this Tastes of Tuscany dinner, other times it’s based on a region of the world, the US or time of year. The host couple selects the THEME. The host couple usually serves a special pre-dinner cocktail; prepares the main course and assigns the other couples dishes to bring that match the selected theme. The table decorations, music and invitations are often designed with the theme in mind. I have huge binders where I have collected and organized all of the recipes/invitations/photos from our many memorable dinners. Occasionally I’ll pull out a recipe from years ago to enjoy it again.
While different couples have come and gone over the years, my husband and I have remained steadfast. Sharing food, wine and fellowship with good friends through these Supper Club Dinners brings us joy. Our most recent dinner was no different.
We just hosted a Tastes of Tuscany Dinner as a result of our recent travels to Italy. The menu was chosen based on the dishes we made during our magical private cooking class in Chianti (see my recent post A Cook’s dream trip to Tuscany). We had two dishes as our Antipasto (traditionally the first course of a formal Italian meal). One was a massive spread of Italian imported delights that the Robys put together. The other was the Panzanella salad recipe I’ll be sharing with you today.
As you can see, our second Antipasto offering was a Panzanella Salad. One of the things we admire about Italian cooking is that they don’t let anything go to waste. So you can imagine this salad was something they created to use up old bread, excess tomatoes, abundant fresh basil and onion they probably kept in their cellars from a previous harvest.
They also only eat what is in season and produced locally. In this case, all of the ingredients for the entire cooking class were sourced within just a few miles radius from this lovely part of Tuscany. Everything from the vegetables, vinegar, olive oils, citrus, bread and meats were all grown, harvested or raised very close to their home.
My version of the salad was made a bit differently than how we were taught during our cooking class. During our cooking class, Nonna Maria (82 years young) instructed my husband to soak large, thick slices of Italian bread in a huge bowl filled with water. After they had soaked for about 15- 30 minutes, his job was to “wring out the water” from the bread. Wild right? I mean the thought of soggy bread doesn’t appeal to most. However, since he was using their homemade bread and added delicious fresh Tuscan tomatoes, onion, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper…the result was a tasty, refreshing dish.
In my version I chose to bake a no knead artisan bread the day before. I let it sit out overnight to allow some drying out. Then the day of assembly, I chose to slice, cube and lightly toast the cubes. Doing this allowed the bread in my salad to absorb all of the amazing vinaigrette flavors and olive oil. I also added seedless cucumber to my version. See the comparison of photos below:
So the next time you find you’ve got some leftover bread, tomatoes, cucumber and onions laying around…consider putting together this rustic Italian salad. Buon Appetito!
Tuscan Panzanella Salad
Ingredients
- 1 large loaf rustic Italian bread (cubed) 8 cups
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 24 ounces Fresh tomatoes, cut in wedges or large chunks
- 2 tsp kosher salt (Diamond Crystal) is the best
- 1/2 medium red onion, sliced very thin
- 1 large English style, seedless cucumber, cut lengthwise and then sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn or sliced chiffonade
Vinaigrette
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 tbsp white wine/champagne vinegar
- leftover juice from after salting the tomatoes
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground white or black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Cut loaf of bread into approximately one in size cubes…better yet…rip them into small pieces (this is a rustic dish afterall)
- Toss bread cubes in 2 tablespoons of good olive oil. Spread on large jelly roll pan and bake in 350 oven for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
- Meanwhile, cut up fresh tomatoes and place them in a colander over a bowl. Sprinkle tomato with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt, stir and leave them to drain while you prepare everything else…at least 15 minutes or so.
- Slice red onion and place in a bowl of ice water. Letting them sit and soak for 10 – 15 minutes will pull out the harshness of the onion. Drain and reserve.
- In a very large bowl, combine the bread, tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers and basil by stirring gently.
- To make the vinaigrette: in a small bowl use a whisk to combine the lemon juice, vinegar and tomato juices. While whisking, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Taste and add additional salt and pepper. Whisk again.
- Pour vinaigrette over bread and vegetable salad. Toss gently. Allow to sit 30 minutes before serving.
