Whenever I go to New York City, I make sure to eat at Da Silvano, and I make doubly sure to eat the Panzanella, which is basically bread salad. On one particular trip, a friend of ours loved it so much that she ordered one for her appetizer and one for her entree.
Dining alfresco at Da Silvano in New York City. Image credit: New York Times
I love the opening description of this salad from the Da Silvano Cookbook books.google.com:
Good enough for an appetizer, salad or entree.
Italians are very resourceful people. Give us anything, even a loaf of stale bread, and we’ll find something to do with it. In fact, stale bread is the basis for one of our favorite summer dishes–panzanella, a refreshing salad that’s dressed with a lot of red wine vinegar to bring out the best flavor of the tomato, cucumber and peppers.
Key to the salad for me was Blue Dog bread, a couple of days old.
- 2 sweet bell peppers
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 loaf of country bread (aka "boule") with crusts cut off and cut into 1" cubes
- 3 tablespoons (loosely packed) fresh basil leaves
- 1 red onion, cut in half, then sliced into 1/2" slices
- 2 small cucumbers, peeled and cut into 1/2" slices
- 2 tomatoes, cut into 1" cubes
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- Fine sea salt
- Fresh ground pepper
- Rub each pepper with one tablespoon of olive oil. Roast peppers either over an open flame, your grill or your broiler. Place peppers with skin on in a plastic bag until cool. When cool, take a paring knife and peel away the skin. It should come off easily. Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the seeds.
- Cut into 1" squares and set aside.
- Put bread into a stainless steel bowl and drizzle one cup of cold water over it. Allow the bread to soak for 10 minutes.
- Squeeze the water out of the bread and return it to a dry bowl.
- Tear up the basil leaves and add them to the bowl with the bread.
- Add the pepper pieces, onion, cucumber and tomato.
- Add the remaining olive oil and the vinegar.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Toss well, taste to adjust the salt and pepper and serve.
Don’t waste the crusts. Save them for croutons or dip in olive oil for an appetizer.
A great use for all your juicy, end of season tomatoes.
Roasting peppers is so easy. Roast a few and save for future use. After roasting, put whole peppers in a plastic baggie for 10 minutes. Skin will peel right off.
Squeeze all the water out of the bread.
Add basil to the crumbled bread for the first layer of this salad.
Put all cut vegetables on top. Drizzle red wine vinegar and olive oil on top. Mix and let sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.
I hope you enjoy this salad as much as my family does. I want to thank my late Aunt Sandy Harmon who introduced me to this restaurant and this salad many years ago.
