Heirloom Tomato Panzanella Salad

Try this Tuscan Bread Salad called Panzanella with juicy Heirloom Tomatoes and day old toasted bread soaked in delicious dressing made with tomato juices, vinegar, mustard and olive oil. Clean salad, easy to assemble, vegan and very flavorful. 

Traditional Panzanella is made with juicy over ripe tomatoes and dried old bread. The dressing and juices from tomatoes rehydrate bread, putting flavor back to the bread and make a filling salad.

What Do You Need To Make Heirloom Tomato Panzanella?

The tar ingredients of this salad is - Heirloom Tomatoes and Bread. That said, overall Panzanella salad ingredients are very easy to find pantry-staples. Here is what you need to make Panzanella:

1. Heirloom Tomatoes
2. Day Old Bread
3. Mustard Dressing
4. Capers
5. Fresh Basil
6. I also add Cucumber (for crunch) and Artichokes for texture. (both optional)

Heirloom Tomatoes

This is the peak of tomato season. During these days, the colorful heirloom tomatoes are my favorite market pick. I love that when in season, heirloom tomatoes are juicy, sweet and bring spectrum of color to the salad platter.  So today's heirloom tomato recipe features my take on Tuscan Panzanella Bread Salad with heirlooms.

I cut heirloom tomatoes into round slices or into wedges. A serrated knife cuts clean tomato slices without squeezing out the seeds. By the way, any seeds and juices released during cutting tomatoes goes into the dressing.

Panzanella Salad Dressing

Dressing for Panzanella is our favorite salad dressing to serve with all kinds of Tomatoes Salad. Olive oil and mustard are main ingredients in the dressing.

In it's simplicity, it is a Mustard Vinaigrette mixed with juices of heirloom tomatoes and few pinches of sugar. Dressing is not sweet only balances the sharp flavor of red wine vinegar and mustard.

It takes 5 minutes to make batch of dressing. I highly recommend trying this dressing. You will love the flavors.

Bread for Panzanella Salad

If you love using day old bread, this will become your favorite salad. I use all kind of day old bread to make Panzanella. Day old ciabatta rolls, baguette, country French bread or even bagels. All kinds of breads can be used to make Panzanella.

For today's recipe I used day old Ciabatta Rolls. I used 3 ciabatta rolls. Dressing is sufficient to accommodate about 4 rolls  if you wish to use more bread. 

For good tasty salad, just make sure to use stale bread and toast bread until crusty golden brown. The well toasted bread will hold dressing well and will not turn mushy. This is very important when making salad ahead of the time.

Panzanella is a perfect make-ahead dish. A well toasted stale bread will soak flavor from dressing and will get even better in taste as salad sits longer.

Once bread is toasted, tomatoes are sliced and dressing is mixed, the pnazanella is ready to assemble and serve.

Really, a few ingredients bring together a lots of flavor. This salad is vegan vegetarian and diary free. I only recommend to make sure to use vegan bread rolls for croutons.

Friends, bring home the flavors of peak tomato season. Try this clean and delicious Heirloom Tomato Salad. If you have always wonder what to do with day old dried bread, Panzanella is the answer. You can make Panzanella with all kinds of ripe juicy tomatoes. On your next groecry trip, bring home tomatoes and try this Tomatoes Panzanella Bread Salad.