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Antipasto Panzanella Salad

The best of two Italian salad worlds. The traditional antipasto ingredients combined with the trinity of what gives panzanella its identity--bread, tomatoes and olives. This is easily constructed and it can be easily doubled or tripled for a crowd. This will be a big hit at a potluck or holiday barbecue. 

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

Salad Dressing

  • 7 cloves garlic divided for dressing and bread cubes
  • 1/3 cup parsley leaves
  • 2/3 c. extra virgin olive oil
  • 5 T. red wine vinegar
  • 3 T. sherry vinegar
  • 1 T. honey
  • 10 basil leaves
  • salt and pepper
  • 1/2 t. tabasco sauce

Antipasto Panzanella Salad

  • 1 loaf sourdough bread cut into 1" cubes
  • 1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
  • 8 Campari tomatoes or any other medium tomatoes, very ripe and chopped into a medium dice
  • 1 seedless (English) cucumber chopped in medium dice
  • 8 oz pitted Kalamata olives and olive mix from olive bar roughly sliced
  • 2 oz Piquillo peppers thinly sliced
  • 4 oz Italian hard salami sliced into thin strips
  • 4 oz buffalo mozzarella cut into small cubes
  • 12 basil leaves finely julienned

Instructions

  1. Salad Dressing

  2. In a small food processor, process 5 garlic cloves until finely chopped and set aside in a large salad bowl for the bread. Add the remaining 2 garlic cloves and parsley to the food processor and process until finely chopped.

  3. Add all remaining ingredients and blend until everything is fully emulsified. If dressing is too sharp, add a bit more honey. Set aside while you make the salad.

Antipasto Panzanella Salad

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the garlic and olive oil. Add all of the cubed bread and toss thoroughly until all of the bread is coated. 

  2. Put the bread cubes on a foil-lined cookie sheet and put in the oven. Do not wash the bowl. Bake for 20- 25 minutes until browned all over but not hard. They should be just crisp and brown.

  3. Remove bread cubes from oven and set aside to cool completely in the same bowl you mixed them with the garlic and oil. At this point you can wait to make the salad. About a half hour before you want to serve the salad, combine tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, peppers, salami and mozzarella and add 1/3 of that mixture to the bread in the bowl. Add 1/3 of the dressing and toss. Add the next 1/3 of the tomato mixture and 1/3 of the dressing and toss. Repeat for the last 1/3 of the ingredients and dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste and the basil.