Panzanella (Italian Bread Salad)

Name: Panzanella (Italian Bread Salad)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Europe, Italian
Ingredients: 6 cups rustic Italian or, French bread, cut or torn into 1-inch pieces (1/2 to 1 pound); 1/2 cup, extra-virgin olive oil; , Salt and pepper; 1 1/2 pounds, tomatoes, cored, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces; 3 tablespoons, red wine vinegar; 1 , cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and sliced thin; 1 , shallot, sliced thin; 1/4 cup, chopped fresh basil

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Appears in Cook's Illustrated July/August 2011, America's Test Kitchen TV

The biggest challenge in making this classic Italian tomato-bread salad is solving an age-old quandary: What's the best way to deal with the bread?

SERVES4

TIME1¼ hours, plus 20 minutes cooling

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WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

Panzanella recipes benefit from the liquid exuded by the tomatoes, so we tossed them with some salt and let them drain in a colander until they’d shed a good bit of juice. Using that juice in our Italian Bread Salad’s dressing boosted its f...

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