“La Panzanella” a Summer recipe

Panzanella is a traditional summer bread salad. It is pertaining to Tuscany’s poor cookery, when bread was baked once a week and the ingenious women dressed up stale bread with vegetables that they found in the vegetable garden. Quick to make, requires no cooking, be sure to use a good quality country bread pane casalingo. Can be served like appetizer or first course, perfect at “merenda” .

Ingredients for 4 people:

• gr. 300 stale bread
• 5 diced ripe tomatoes (hard)
• 1 red onions (better spring onion)
• one cucumber
• basil, salt and pepper
• red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil.

Cut the bread into slices and soak it in cold water for about 10 minutes. Then squeeze well the slices, break them up reducing them into crumbles and put in a salad bowl. Add in the tomatoes, the onion and the cucumber. Then add the basil leaves, season with salt and pepper and dress with olive oil. Turn all and put in the fridge; at the moment of serving, season again with vinegar and oil (be generous). buon appetito