Transform leftover bread with juicy sweet tomatoes and a tangy vinaigrette into the best Panzanella salad. Our classic Italian tomato and bread salad recipe is super easy to make and a satisfying meal all in one.
Roughly chop/tear chunks of bread into 2-3 cm cubes. In a large mixing bowl, drizzle bread with extra virgin olive oil. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Once done, remove from the oven to cool down.
Cut tomatoes into large chunks. Place tomatoes into a colander and season with salt.Place a bowl under colander and let tomatoes sit for about 10-15 minutes.Collect the tomato juice in the bowl under colander and save for panzanella salad dressing.
Cut red onion in half and thinly slice into half moons.
Wash and roughly tear basil leaves.
Salad Dressing
In a mixing bowl, add leftover tomato juice, extra virgin olive oil, crushed garlic, Dijon mustard and red wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.
Mix well until combined.
Assembly
In a large bowl, add all salad ingredients and drizzle dressing.
Toss together and let the salad mingle with dressing for about 10-15 minutes before serving.
Video
Notes
Toasting the bread before assembly stops it from turning into a pile of soggy mush.
Salting the tomatoes is an important step to help draw out juice from the tomatoes but also add extra flavour.
You can choose whichever variety of tomatoes you like or are in season. Make sure they are fresh, plump and ripe.
If you don’t have fresh basil available, I would just leave it out.
If you don’t have red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, sherry vinegar, champagne vinegar, or cider vinegar would work too.