Panzanella Recipe

This colorful panzanella recipe is a classic Italian bread salad, featuring crusty bread, ripe tomatoes, bell peppers, and basil.

Summer always seems to slip away, doesn’t it? August is nearly gone, and we feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface of our summer checklist. Trip to beach in Michigan? Berry picking at a local farm? Guess it will wait until next year. But one thing we have done: made this panzanella recipe. Panzanella is an Italian bread salad, and it’s everything summer! Ripe tomatoes, basil, bell peppers, and garlic are mixed with crunchy bread and a garlicky vinaigrette into an incredible salad. My, oh my. It’s a family favorite, over here.

Related: 15 Best Fresh Tomato Recipes

How to make this panzanella recipe

Luckily we have another month of tomato season here in Indiana, so we can continue to enjoy the tastes of summer. When ran across some lovely multi-colored cherry tomatoes and bell peppers at our local farmers market, and were inspired to make a panzanella recipe.

What is panzanella? Panzanella is an Italian bread salad that combines dried, crusty bread squares with fresh vegetables and a vinaigrette. It’s a genius idea for using up old bread, and extraordinarily delicious. You can use any fresh veggies you have on hand. The traditional vegetables used in a panzanella recipe are tomatoes, peppers, red onion, and sometime cucumber. Our version of a panzanella looks even more vibrant than most because we used multi-colored cherry tomatoes and three colors of bell peppers.

Here are the basic steps on how to make this panzanella recipe (see below the full recipe):

1. Toast the bread cubes: Cut bread into cubes and toss it with olive oil and black pepper. Roast the cubes for about 7 minutes at 450 degrees until they’re golden brown.
2. Chop the vegetables: Chop the vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Here we used multi-colored cherry tomatoes and bell peppers, and thinly sliced red onions.
3. Make the vinaigrette: Mix up a simple vinaigrette: ours uses olive oil, sherry vinegar, and minced garlic.
4. Mix together and allow to stand: Mix all the ingredients together and let them stand for at least 15 minutes, so that all the flavors can meld. Then the salad is best served immediately. As expected, the bread becomes soggy over time, so leftovers aren’t the best. Try to eat it the day it’s made! (To make it in advance, keep all the components separate before serving.

We used this recipe to help break in our new kitchen with some friends. What’s your favorite summertime dish?

Get the best cherry tomatoes you can find

Like most simple recipes, the flavor of this panzanella recipe is dependent on the quality of ingredients. It’s best to buy ripe, in season cherry tomatoes for this one. If it’s not tomato season, you can sometimes find tomatoes grown in a greenhouse (hydroponic) at the grocery store that have decent flavor. You’ll just want the highest in quality of cherry tomatoes for this recipe to shine!

Buying local tomatoes helps support your local farmers: so if there’s a chance to do so, we heartily recommend it. Please do not even think about using off-season, mealy pink tomatoes. The flavor here is 100% dependent on the quality of your tomato!

The best fresh basil: home grown!

Basil is easy to grow at home: and it’s very hardy as long as you place it in full sun! Basil adds an aromatic flavor to such a wide variety of recipes, and growing it at home is much cheaper than buying it at the store. If you’re looking to grow your own basil plant, we have a step by step guide here: How to Grow Basil.

Looking for easy potluck recipes?

This panzanella recipe would be great for a potluck (as long as it doesn’t sit out for hours!). Here are a few more easy potluck recipes:

• Classic Vegan Potato Salad
• Incredible Chopped Salad
• Cucumber Salad with Vinegar
• Mexican Quinoa
• Greek Salad
• Seriously Simple Three Bean Salad
• Vegan Italian Pasta Salad
• Rice & Lentil Salad
• Best Tossed Salad Recipe with Creamy Avocado Dressing
• Strawberry Spinach Salad
• French Potato Salad

This panzanella recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free.

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Looking for more grilling ideas?

This panzanella recipe would also be a fabulous side dish for a grilled meal. Here are a few more grilling ideas for creating a menu:

• Best Grilled Veggie Burger
• Grilled Vegetable Pasta
• Greek Grilled Portobello Burger
• Grilled Buffalo Cauliflower Sandwich
• Grilled Veggie Fajitas
• Grilled Cauliflower Steak with Corn Salsa
• Pesto Portobello Mushroom Burger
• Tomato & Grilled Eggplant Stacked Sandwich
• Grilled Teriyaki Mango Skewers
• Loaded Grilled Nachos
• Grilled Eggplant Salad with Yogurt
• Greek Grilled Veggie Skewers
• Grilled Carrots with Lime and Cilantro
• Grilled Romaine Lettuce
• Simple Grilled Paella
• 100 Grilling Recipes
• Mint Pesto Grilled Cheese on the Grill