Panzanella - The Classic Tuscan Summer Dish

By Gaia Massai

As I sit at the airport heading to Tuscany to visit my family for the summer, I know that intense heat and sun will greet me right at the tarmac in Florence. One of the first dishes that come to mind and that I will prepare will definitively my version of Panzanella, a simple yet brilliant combination of bread, ripe tomatoes, onions soaked in a generous amount of olive oil.

This is one of the dishes of cucina povera, reminiscent of the times where throwing away stale bread was unthinkable. It’s the summer, cold and simpler cousin of another Tuscan classic, Ribollita, which I will be happy to share come Autumn.

The classic version calls for cucumbers, peeled and cut in chunks but, since they are not my favorite vegetable, I substitute them with chunks of crunchy celery.
The bread used is typically stale Tuscan bread but in Toronto you can substitute with a crusty ciabatta. You also don’t have to wait until your bread becomes stale- just toast or- even better- bbq it in thin slices and let them them cool before proceeding.

Here is my version of Panzanella - Buona Estate!

Ingredients

• 300 g stale Ciabatta bread
• 2 ripe large tomatoes - like Heirloom
• 2 celery stalks – strings removed
• 1 small red onion
• few fresh basil leaves
• extra virgin olive oil- to taste but be generous
• red wine vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Break up the bread and place the pieces in a bowl. Cover with cold water for 5 minute (or less if using fresh toasted/bbq bread).
2. Finely slice the onions and chop tomatoes roughly- I like to leave them in fairly big chunks.
3. Cut the celery stalks into 1 inch pieces
4. Drain the bread and squeeze out excess water, transfer into another bowl and crumble it using your hands. The original recipe crumbles it finely but I like to keep larger pieces as well.
5. Add onion, celery and basil leaves (torn by hand).
6. Season with salt, pepper, a small amount of vinegar and a generous amount of good Extra Virgin olive oil. (If you think that you’ve put enough, add another tablespoon or two as my idea of generous means a lot of olive oil!)
7. Keep in the fridge for at least 30 min before serving. Panzanella is best eaten the day you prepare it.

Notes

• Take you time to really squeeze out the water out of the bread- soggy Panzanella is not great
• Keep onion in cold water to 5 minutes to remove some punginess if desired or use fresh Tropea onions if you can find them.