Panzanella Salad with Roasted Tomatoes
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My panzanella salad combines bite-size chunks of olive-oil-and-herb toasted bread, juicy roasted tomatoes, and crisp vegetables with soft mozzarella and feta cheeses. The zippy Italian-style red wine vinaigrette saturates every bite with flavor.
Let’s talk about the wonder of the classic panzanella. How could something as basic as pieces of bread, tomatoes, and dressing come together so harmoniously? I’ve rediscovered the beauty of this Italian bread salad. It’s become a favorite, especially for having friends over to share simple summer meals.
panzanella is a game-changing salad.
Let’s count the ways:
- Easy: Yes, it’s pretty much effortless to make. Serve panzanella in a big, rustic bowl for a family-style meal when you don’t feel like cooking.
- Assemble it later: Panzanella is the ultimate make-ahead meal, showcasing the beauty of easy dinner salads.
- Prep friendly: Every component, from the toasted bread croutons, salad dressing, and roasted veggies can be prepped up to 2 days ahead. Assemble the salad and serve whenever you’re ready.
- For a more substantial supper, serve the salad with marinated grilled chicken or lemony baked salmon.
Panzanella salad ingredients
- Bread: “Pane” means bread in Italian, which is a clue that the quality of the bread in panzanella is critical. I want you to be choosy! If you’re lucky to have a loaf of homemade sourdough or ciabatta — yay! Otherwise, use your favorite bakery or grocery store artisan-style bread. Country-style bread has a sturdy crumb and pleasing texture that pairs with the dressing and juicy vegetables without dissolving into mush. I usually avoid French bread or baguettes because they’re often bland and have a disappointing texture that reminds me of industrial styrofoam.
- Vegetables: Traditional Tuscan-style panzanella could not be simpler — it’s typically made with leftover bread, sweet, ripe tomatoes, and lavish amounts of olive oil. We don’t always have luscious summer tomatoes around, so I like to roast cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes with red or yellow bell pepper just until they soften and release their juices. To add more crunch and variety, thinly sliced sweet red onion, and crisp cucumbers.
- Cheese: Because I can’t pick just one, I use fresh mozzarella cheese and creamy feta cheese. You can use bite-size bocconcini or tear a ball of mozzarella into rustic pieces.
- Salad dressing: I make a zippy vinaigrette based on olive oil, red wine vinegar, and Dijon mustard. The bright-tasting dressing permeates the bread, saturating every morsel with flavor.
Recipe steps
Note: You don’t necessarily need to use stale bread to make this panzanella. I think good fresh bread tastes better and isn’t as hard to slice. I toast the bread briefly (leaving the crust on) with olive oil and seasonings. The different textures of the crusty edges and the softer interior crumb is so, so good.
1. Toss bread cubes on a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil, oregano, and a pinch of salt. 2. Drizzle tomatoes and colorful bell peppers with olive oil on a second sheet. Bake the two pans at the same time for 15 minutes.
3. Shake the salad dressing in a Mason jar, or whisk in a bowl. 4. After baking, the bread should be lightly toasted and the vegetables softened and juicy.
5. Put the bread and all of the vegetables in a large bowl, then toss with the dressing until all the components are evenly coated. 6. Top the salad with torn mozzarella and/or crumbled feta cheese and basil leaves. Serve the salad right away, or allow it to marinate for a few hours at room temperature.
Panzanella Salad with Roasted Tomatoes
My panzanella salad combines bite-size chunks of olive-oil-and-herb toasted bread, juicy roasted tomatoes, and crisp vegetables with soft mozzarella and feta cheeses. The zippy Italian-style red wine vinaigrette saturates every bite with flavor.
Equipment
Ingredients
Panzanella Salad Dressing
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon grated fresh garlic, or very finely chopped garlic
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Panzanella
- 3-4 ½-inch thick slices (275 g) sourdough bread, ciabatta, or similar crusty bread
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Kosher salt
- 3 (340 g) red bell peppers, or assorted colors (yellow, orange, red), sliced into 1-inch pieces
- 12 ounces (300 g) cherry or grape tomatoes, 1 pint
- ¼ cup thinly sliced red onion
- 2 (165 6) baby (Persian) cucumbers, or seedless cucumber, sliced into thin rounds
- ½ cup fresh mozzarella, or crumbled feta cheese (or a 50-50 combination)
- Handful of fresh basil or Italian parsley, roughly torn
Instructions
Mix the salad dressing
- Combine all the ingredients for the vinaigrette dressing in a lidded glass jar. Shake it until the dressing is smooth and emulsified. Alternatively, you can whisk everything together in a bowl. The dressing can be made up to 3 days ahead (store in the refrigerator).
Panzanella salad
- Preheat the oven to 400F (205C).
- Slice the bread into 1-inch cubes (they don't have to be perfect). If you're feeling rustic, tear the bread into irregular bite-size pieces instead of slicing it. You should have about 5 heaping cups.
- Put the bread pieces on a rimmed sheet pan. Drizzle about 3 tablespoons of olive oil over the bread and sprinkle with the oregano and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Toss together until the bread is evenly coated with the seasonings, then spread it out in an even layer. Bake 15 minutes, stirring the pieces around once about halfway through. The bread should be crisp on the edges and lightly toasted.
- Put the sliced peppers and tomatoes on a second rimmed sheet pan. Drizzle on 1-2 tablespoons of the olive oil and sprinkle with a large pinch of salt, then gently shake the pan to coat. Bake alongside the bread for 15 minutes.
- Transfer the toasted bread to an oversized bowl. Scrape in the roasted tomatoes and peppers, along with all the tomato juices that collected in the pan. Add the red onion and cucumbers and toss a few times to incorporate. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss everything together until evenly coated.
- Tear the mozzarella into pieces. Scatter the cheese over the salad along with the herbs. Serve and enjoy!
Karen’s Notes and Tips
- For a fresh, crunchy version of this panzanella, skip roasting the tomatoes and peppers. Combine them raw with the toasted bread, dressing, cheese, and other vegetables.
- Panzanella salad keeps for a couple of hours at room temperature. Leftovers can be refrigerated for a day or two. Bring to room temperature before serving.
- I prefer to leave the crust on the bread. I enjoy the texture of the crusty edges and the softer crumb.
- The toasted bread can be prepared 2-3 days ahead. After it cools, transfer to a storage bag or container and keep at room temperature. Or make a double batch to make the best homemade breadcrumbs!
- Use large heirloom tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes. Cut them into quarters.
- To make the salad into a heftier meal, serve with grilled chicken thighs or baked salmon.
Nutrition
Calories: 126kcal Carbohydrates: 8g Protein: 4g Fat: 9g Sodium: 274mg Fiber: 2g Sugar: 5g
Nutrition facts are calculated by third-party software. If you have specific dietary needs, please refer to your favorite calculator.
Hey, I’m Karen
Creator of Familystyle Food
I’m a food obsessed super-taster and professionally trained cook ALL about creating elevated dinners with everyday ingredients. Find simplified recipes made from scratch and enjoy incredibly tasty food! Read more about me here.
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With a lot of garden cherry tomatoes and basil available, I had to give this a try. I only had green pepper to work with, not red. This is so easy once you cut your veggies and cube your bread. I had a loaf of Parmesan rosemary needing to be used and it worked perfectly. I detoured a bit from the recipe in that we ate the mixture on a bed of spring greens with the dressing, and had grilled chicken tenders alongside. I also needed to add a bit of sugar to the dressing to adjust for our palette. Excellent way to eat a seasonal delicious salad and really amp up the tomato flavor by roasting. I will make this regularly. Excellent.
Petra, I love your version with the Parmesan-rosemary bread and spring greens!