Panzanella

This is really the quintessence of Tuscan “cooking”, the most traditional dish that you will not find outside Tuscany and in a sense it really reflects our food philosophy. The word panzanella has not a clear origin. Some say that it means delicacy, however the word “panzana” means lie. And I want to think that this is also reflected in the dish, especially due to the fact that such a “poor” dish is offered at outrageous prices in restaurants in Florence nowadays!

In order to make a perfect panzanella you need (4 persons):

Sunshine and at least 27 Deg Celsius (you can appreaciate it only when it is hot).

500 g of 3-4 days old Tuscan bread

The results will not be good if the bread is fresh or if it is not Tuscan

4 ripen tomatoes

8-10 basil leaves

2 onions (better if Tropea or Certaldo)

1 cucumber

Salt, pepper, vinegar (standard one, not balsamic!) and lots of extravirgin olive oil.



Cut the bread in big chunks (3-4) and soak it in fresh water. In the meanwhile prepare the “condimento” (seasoning). Wash the tomatoes and cut in dices around 1 cm wide.

Finely chop the onion.

Peel the cucumber, cut lengthwise in quarters and (I like to do like that, but there are people that do not understand this) remove the seeds. Slice the cucumber quarters. Coarsely chop the basil leaves and mix everything together seasoning with salt, pepper, vinegar and oil as if you were doing a salad. Be careful as the bread has no salt, therefore a little bit more salt than usual should be added. The same can be said for oil.

By now the bread should have turned soft. Squeeze it with your hands and remove all the excess water. The bread has to be soft but not wet. You will see that the bread will break apart in small bits. This will happen if it is proper Tuscan bread, otherwise you will get a sticky ball of glueish stuff that you can throw away.

Mix the bread and the vegetables, and serve.

If you don’t have Tuscan bread you can try to use cous cous. The result is not exactly the same, but it gives you an idea.