This delicious Panzanella salad combines grilled zucchini and peppers, fresh tomatoes, onion and a tangy vinaigrette dressing all tossed with crisped up sourdough bread. Perfect for an Italian style summery lunch or light dinner option.
Panzanella Salad With Grilled Zucchini and Peppers
If you are not familiar with Panzanella salad, it is a bread salad (no lettuce) from the Tuscany region of Italy that uses stale Tuscan bread (usually day-old bread) and is mixed with fresh tomatoes (and sometimes onions) and a light olive oil dressing.
The thing is, if you want to make a traditional Panzanella, you will need Tuscan bread which is a very unique bread that has no salt (or flavor for that matter..) ha ha. But really, it is flavorless and what the Tuscan people use for bread. This has always been the way of bread making in the region and it goes back a long way in history although noone is exactly sure why.
Remember that if you are planning to visit the Tuscany region of Italy so you are not disappointed. The Tuscan people do love to adorn their bread with delicious toppings though so that helps.
Because I love Panzanella salads so much, I decided to make it with sourdough bread at home and bulk it up with summer vegetables. In addition to the fresh tomatoes, red onions, sourdough bread, and light olive oil dressing, I added grilled zucchini and grilled red peppers to really make this Panzanella a complete meal.
No more worrying about what to serve with a Panzanella salad since this one is a complete meal all on its own. Plus, these veggies all grow around the same time in the summer garden so they are perfect for a light summer meal when combined into the salad.
The Steps
To start making this bread salad, you want to first work on crisping up that day-old bread. If your bread is very stale then you can soak it in some water, ring it out, and then toast it up! I like to cut the bread into 1-inch bread cubes so there is more surface area that gets crisp in the oven.
I like to to add olive oil to the bread and toast it up in the oven since the oven has a nice dry heat. If you want to make this entire meal outside, you can certainly grill up the bread with the veggies.
The next step is grilling up the zucchini and red peppers. Notice how I like to cut my zucchini for grilling (lengthwise) which helps prevent it from falling through the grill grates.
Once everything is grilled and the bread is toasted up nicely, the only thing left is slicing up the onions and tomatoes and making that really simple Italian dressing for the salad. If you want a more interesting dressing, I like to sometimes use my sherry shallot dressing if I have the sherry vinegar on hand.
I also like to do a light chop of the zucchini and peppers before they are tossed in the salad.
You want to toss it all together right before you are ready to eat. This will ensure the bread doesn't get mushy.
That is it! This Panzanella salad with zucchini and peppers is always a great option for the summer and is so delicious. I hope you love it as much as I do 🙂
Don't forget to use a nice bowl to serve this summer bread salad in if you are serving this to family or friends. It is these simple things that also make the meal authentic Italian.
More Italian Summer Recipes
Panzanella Salad With Grilled Zucchini and Peppers
Ingredients
Panzanella Salad
- 1 Loaf of Sourdough bread Cut into cubes.
- 2 Red Bell Peppers Cleaned and slice in half for grilling.
- 2 Medium Zucchini Cleaned and sliced lengthwise for grilling.
- 4 Large ripe tomatoes Cut into quarters
- 1 Small Red onion very thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoon Olive oil plus more for brushing on the vegetables
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt plus more to taste
Dressing
- 4 tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
- 2 cloves Garlic finely chopped
- 3 tablespoon Olive oil
- ½ teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- pinch of sugar
Instructions
- Preheat a grill to medium heat.
- Brush red peppers and zucchini with olive oil and grill for about 5 minutes per side or until lightly charred but still a little firm.2 Red Bell Peppers, 2 Medium Zucchini
- Remove from the grill and allow to cool.
- When cool, cut the peppers into thick strips and the zucchini into 2 inch pieces.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Toss bread with olive oil and salt and place on to a baking sheet.1 Loaf of Sourdough bread, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, 3 tablespoon Olive oil
- Place in the oven on the middle rack for about 10 minutes or until slightly crisp then remove and allow to cool.
- In a small bowl, add the olive oil, garlic, salt, vinegar, Italian seasoning and sugar and mix well.½ teaspoon Kosher salt, 4 tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar, 2 cloves Garlic, 3 tablespoon Olive oil, ½ teaspoon dried Italian seasoning, pinch of sugar
- Grab a large bowl and add the tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, onion then bread.4 Large ripe tomatoes, 1 Small Red onion
- Add the dressing and toss well.
- Serve immediately.
TAYLER ROSS
I made this salad for lunch today and it was excellent! Such a fun twist on a regular salad!
kisitalian
Italian panzanella salads are one of my favorites for a salad!
Paula
Loving this panzanella salad with zucchini! So tasty with grilled chicken last night for dinner
kisitalian
The addition to the grilled chicken sounds amazing.