Panzanella

When I was in Italy a few years ago, I had (for the first time ever) panzanella. It was a fairly simple bread salad with chunks of tuna, tomatoes, basil and a light oil and vinegar dressing. When I've tried to find panzanella recipes online, they are always somewhat complex and involve a lot of ingredients that I just don't think are necessary. This recipe is a great use for stale pieces of bread and is easy to make with ingredients from a summer garden (or the supermarket).

For the bread, we usually cut up the ends of bread that we're not going to eat and let it sit on the counter for a few days. Any sort of bread is fine (except for processed sliced bread). Then we store it until we are ready to use it.

 

 Panzanella 

• 1 can of tuna in water
• 2-3 cups of dried bread cubes
• 2-3 large tomatoes, cut into cubes
• A general amount of basil, roughly chopped
• 1/2 red onion, roughly chopped
• Oil
• Vinegar
• Salt

1. If your bread is very, very hard you may want to soak it in water for a few minutes and then strain it. I know this sounds sort of gross, but very stale bread will not become soggy after a few minutes of soaking. Rather, it will be slightly softer and crunchy.
2. In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, tuna, onion and basil.
3. Drizzle with oil and vinegar and mix. Add salt to taste.