Panzanella

Panzanella is a healthy Italian salad made with pieces of stale, moistened bread, topped with ripe tomatoes , onions, basil and a dressing of wine vinegar and olive oil . This salad is a specialty of the Italian province of Tuscany, where it is usually eaten during the hot, dusty summer months. It naturally makes use of the fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs available at that time.

The exact ingredients of panzanella vary and the salad can sometimes contain additional ingredients, including cucumber, olives and even cheese.

This salad probably originated as a simple onion salad with bread (or a bread salad with onions), because tomatoes remained a luxury item throughout the Mediterranean region until after the Second World War. The name of the salad, panzanella, also suggests this origin: pan is the Italian word for 'bread' and zanella is the diminutive of zana , which means 'bowl'. Together they mean 'bread (eating) from a bowl'.

It is thought that the original version of panzanella was born out of necessity. Poverty was widespread in earlier times and so you naturally use the ingredients that were available, such as old bread.

This salad was first described by the (once) famous painter and poet Agnolo di Cosimo (1503-1572), who was better known as Bronzino. He owed his nickname to his relatively dark skin, combined with a head full of red hair. However, the salad is much older and probably dates back to the period of the Roman Empire.