Easy Panzanella Salad with Crisp Fried Bread

The Panzanella salad with crisp fried bread is a Tuscan salad that is popular throughout Italy! Using just the simplest of ingredients or panty favourites (that might’ve gotten old) such as tomatoes and bread, you’ll be able to make this delicious, sunny and zesty salad! The most important thing is to make sure your tomatoes are ripe for maximum sweetness! Let’s make this panzanella salad with crisp fried bread!

I love my salad to be tangy and bright and bread is always a welcome addition. I am deeply in love with fried bread, just something about fried carbs that give you crisp, delicious joy!

I hope you’ll enjoy making and savouring this recipe with your family! Feel free to add other ingredients such as buffalo mozzarella cheese, feta or even some peppers, if you like! Whatever that makes you feel sunny!

One-Bowl Panzanella Salad

Recipe by Mel

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Ingredients

• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

• 1-2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 2 big red tomatoes, cut into 2cm cubes 

• 12 nos red cherry tomatoes, cut into 2

• 12 nos yellow cherry tomatoes, cut into 2

• 8 pitted kalamata olives, cut into 2
  

• 1 tbsp of capers, finely chopped

• 2 tsp salt

• 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar 

• Juice of half fresh lemon

• 7-8 fresh basil leaves

• Olive oil, for frying 

• 1 ½ stale ciabatta bread

Directions

• Preferably, have a wide and shallow bowl ready as this makes mixing easy. Slice the red onions into thin crescent moons and chop the garlic. Place them on one section of the bowl and drizzle 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar on them and toss them together.
• Cut up all the tomatoes and place them on the bowl next to the onions. Season the tomatoes with a teaspoon of salt and gently toss the tomatoes. This will extract some tomato juices out, and give extra flavour to the dish.
• Cut up the kalamata olives, capers and toss them over the tomatoes in the bowl. Set aside.
• Slice ciabatta bread into bite sized pieces.
• Heat a generous 2-3 tbsp olive oil in a pan and fry the bread pieces until golden brown on all sides and set it aside.
• Back to the bowl of salad, add about 1 tbsp of lemon juice and 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar and tear some basil leaves into the bowl. Toss in the fried bread pieces and toss everything together with olive oil. Adjust seasoning.
• Serve and enjoy immediately for a crisp salad or if you prefer, serve in 10 minutes after the bread has soaked up all the juices.

I hope this recipe made you excited to try it out and if you do, don’t forget to tag me at @imeldawadhwa on Instagram! I promise you’ll love this summer-y and fresh dish! Check out the full video on my Instagram page! Leave in the comments below if you’d like me to try any more recipes!

Till my next recipe. Deliciously Yours, Mel!