If you’re a salad fan or even if you’re not, you’ll love this Panzanella salad. This crouton salad is crispy, tasty and ideal to take advantage of those beautiful summer tomatoes.
This Panzanella salad is like bruschetta turned into salad. It has crispy croutons, tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. The variations I made to this salad is that I uses red onion instead of shallots (it’s been hard to get it lately) and I also sautéed the onion. I do this because in general I have trouble digesting raw onion, so I rather give it a quick sautée to soften it. If you like raw onion, just add it like that. I also added olives which are not typically added to Panzanella.
If you don’t like raw garlic because it’s pretty strong (even though I love it with all my heart) you can sautée it along with the onion, in the recipe I explain how. You could also use garlic confit. Other adaptations you can make to this Panzanella salad is to add Parmesan cheese flakes, mini mozzarella balls or even fruits like cherries, peaches, strawberries, etc. If you like, you can even add lettuce.
This panzanella salad sits for 15 minutes with the dressing so the croutons soften a bit. That time is ideal so that they soften on the outside but are still crispy on the inside. Also, they absorb the dressing making them EXTRA good. If you let it sit for too long they’ll get soggy, and if you don’t let it sit, it will hurt to eat, lol! So add the dressing just in time for your lunch/dinner. If you need more salad ideas, check out my salad section here on the blog.
Ingredients
For the croutons
- 2 ciabatta loafs the small ones, not the baguette-like in length, one of those
- Plenty olive oil
- Salt and pepper
For the onion
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ red onion sliced, or 1 shallot
- Salt and pepper
For the dressing
- 1 garlic clove minced, grated o ground
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar or white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper
For the salad
- 700 g cherry tomatoes halved
- 150 g drained and pitted green olives sliced
- 1 cup basil leaves chopped large
Instructions
For the croutons
- Cut the bread in 3cm/1in cubes.
- Place the bread cubes on a baking tray and add a generous of olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C/350°F for 10-15min or until nicely golden.
For the onion
- [If you prefer, you can use raw onion] Preheat a pan over high heat, let it get very hot. Add the oil and onion and sautée it to make it nice and golden, it should take a couple of minutes. Add salt and pepper. If you prefer to cook the garlic to soften its flavour as well, you can add it to the onion once it's ready and sautée it for a few seconds.
- Reserve the onion and let it cool down completely before adding to the salad.
For the dressing
- In a small bowl add the garlic (omit if you sautéed it with the onion), mustard, salt and pepper.
- Add the vinegar a whisk together.
- Add the oil slowly, whisking the whole time as you pour. Keep whisking until everything comes together.
For the salad
- In a large bowl or salad bowl add the croutons, tomatoes, olives and basil.
- Add the dressing and mix. Let it rest for 15 minutos. The idea is that the brear is slightly soft on the outside and still crispy at the centre. More time than this and the bread will soak completely, and if it's less than this, you'll break a tooth, lol!
