Summer is the time to cook the popular Italian Panzanella salad, it needs juicy fragrant seasonal tomatoes, which are now abundant. The salad is based on tomatoes, onions, and slices of dried bread, soaked in tomato juice, olive oil, and wine vinegar.
The salad is very varied, you can add different vegetables to it. But in my opinion, not all vegetables are suitable for it, often on the Internet, you can see how cucumbers and celery are added to it, but I will tell you this completely wrong, these vegetables are just superfluous there because they are too crispy.
I added baked bell peppers to the salad. Such an additive just goes very well with this salad, since baked peppers are tender, soft and sweet. Optionally, you can add olives, capers, tuna, or mozzarella, although this will not be a classic at all. But you should not get carried away with additives, as you should remember that initially, it was a salad of the poor, and there weren’t any frills – only juicy tomatoes, stale bread, and olive oil.
I give the layout of the ingredients for 6 servings.
Italian salad “Panzanella”
Ingredients
- 28 oz ripe tomatoes (if any, then different varieties)
- 14 oz bell pepper (2 pcs. different colors)
- 7 oz bread (best ciabatta)
- 3 oz purple onions
- 3 sprigs of basil
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1-2 tbsp wine or balsamic vinegar
- pinch of sugar, salt, pepper, dry garlic
Instructions
- Put peppers in a pan or on a baking sheet. Put in an oven preheated to 220 degrees. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until black tan on the skin. Tighten the baked peppers immediately with a film or transfer into a bag and tie. Leave to cool completely. Then remove the peppers from the bag, peel off the skin, scrub the seeds. Cut into thin strips.
- Tear the bread into small pieces and dry in the oven at 180 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.
- Cut the onion into very thin quarters of rings.
- We collect the salad. Cut the tomatoes into slices, put them in a container.
- Add pepper, onion, and basil.
- Add all seasoning ingredients, mix.
- Add dried bread, mix gently. If the bread is very dried, then let the salad sit for a time, or you can serve it right away.