Panzanella. The Tomato and Bread Salad.
Why I Get so Excited About Local Produce + What’s Been Going on Around Here.
Cut a few slices of stale homemade bread, then tear them lightly. Arrange them on a serving plate and season by sprinkling them with vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. This is undoubtedly the original recipe of this tasty dish to which, over time, many ingredients have been added and left to the imagination of those who prepare it: onion, garlic, anchovies, tomato, basil, cucumbers, peppers and... so on and so forth: it's always good.
– Maria Giuseppina Truini Palomba, La cucina sabina
This summer has been a good one so far. And I am thankful because this past Irish winter was challenging and the springtime was also intense with celebrations, guests from Italy and America not to mention the hands-on upgrades and work required to get our Irish home ready for the summer rental season.
The end of June started off with some much-needed solo time in Rome. In those sweltering days, I was delighted to join Alice Adams Carosi in her studio to co-teach a gluten-free cooking class. The experience reconfirmed my love of connecting people with the good seasonal, traditional, and regional Italian dishes that they may have thought were off-limits to them because of their dietary lifestyles. These dietary lifestyles or “modern diet” choices are often motivated by ethics or integral Food as Medicine therapies for conditions that ail. Introducing individuals to the local bounty of what they can have as opposed to what they can’t have is a sweet spot that motivates me every day.
I met Riccardo and the children at the airport, and we headed up to Rieti to get the house ready for the months ahead. After tending to a few personal and stressful family events (it’s not all sunflowers and wine baby), we hit the road for the cooler altitudes of Trento and a long overdue catch-up with a childhood friend. Trento is a spectacular location all year round, and it’s one that I highly recommend.
Toward the middle of July, a friend’s low-key birthday celebration at an Agriturismo on the Lago del Salto here in Rieti was a great reminder of the models that lend to Italy’s Sustainable Excellence and the undiscovered gems in the rural spaces of our territory here in Lazio.
We celebrated Riccardo’s birthday at the end of July escaping for a night out in Rome to see La traviata at the Terme di Caracalla. Absolutely tops when it comes to experiences in this ancient city.
At home, we had a courgette flower or fiori di zucca laced dinner. We enjoyed gluten-free flowers stuffed with local mozzarella and anchovies followed by spaghetti, clams, and bottarga and to finish a delicate plate of sole. Big fat juicy slices of tomato dressed with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper served as contorno. We indulged in the best-tasting watermelon (all day every day) and Riccardo blew out his candles on a gluten-free cake known as a Mimosa which originally hails from Rieti. These are all recipes that I look forward to sharing here in time.
Due to the current family events, we have now taken over full responsibility for everything green that surrounds us and we are relishing in eating al fresco again. Meals are inspired by the vegetables and fruit that grow in our small garden as well as the crated gifts from our neighbours.
Courgettes are raining out of the heavens. There have also been cucumbers, tiny aubergines, fresh salad leaves, and yellow plums not to mention the fresh borlotti beans, peppers, peaches, and the last cherries purchased from the local market and farm stands. Our figs and tomatoes still have a bit to go, but we have received copious amounts of garden-fresh tomatoes which of course means Panzanella, a dish that hails from Central Italy, with variations on the tomatoes and stale bread marriage to be found all over the boot under different names.
And while it is easy to live in a bubble, it is hard to ignore the fact that Italy and many countries in the Northern Hemisphere are ablaze. Both humanity and this precious planet that we live on are inflamed and on fire in so many ways, and it’s difficult not to go into a doom spiral while watching bright screens.
As individuals, we feel so powerless as those who make important decisions on our behalf continue to close their eyes, but we do, in fact, have more influence than we realise in the shift and change of the global systems that can hinder or heal climate change.
So what does this have to do with good produce? Well, as the EAT-Lancet Commission Summary tells us, “Food is the single strongest lever to optimise human health and environmental sustainability on Earth”. Eating locally and in season and growing our own food where possible will help to heal our planet.
Our lives between Italy and Ireland where the population relies heavily on imported vegetables poor in both nutrition and taste, has us living the dual realities of a healthy and broken food system. The Irish population is well below the daily consumption of produce recommended by the World Health Organisation and the effects of this are clear. It’s so much more than a short story of sad tomatoes.
“Improving the fruit and vegetable system in Ireland could bring about multiple benefits for sustainable food and health”.
As a small, open economy with a mild climate, Ireland is heavily reliant on imports for fruit and vegetable supply. Imports for fruit and vegetable supply have steadily increased over the last 60 years as domestic production has decreased (Figure 1). In 2020, 890 thousand tonnes of fruit and vegetables were imported. - UCD Institute Sustainability Report
In future posts, I will be talking more about the elements of the Good Food Systems that are fundamental in our move toward Food Sovereignty and the fight against Climate Change. I will also be writing about Italy as a model of Sustainable Food and Travel inspiration. It’s amazing what you can support and discover when you take the road less traveled.
Until then, this is a gentle reminder to find some local ripe juicy tomatoes to make that Panzanella. This tomato and bread salad is great for entertaining right now especially because it suits so many diets. It takes minimal effort but has huge returns in flavour and is especially handy if you need to feed a crowd. The Roman version tends to be more pared down with the use of tomatoes and onions. In Tuscany, they typically add cucumbers as well. I used to make variations of this on repeat during the five years that we lived in Calabria as we always had fresh cucumbers, ripe tomatoes, great herbs as well as the best onions to hand. If you make this recipe off season it will disappoint.
As the bread source for this recipe, I rely on the ancient and super rustic gluten-free whole grain twice-baked donut-shaped Puglian biscuit bread known as fresa, frisella or fresella now widely used throughout the South.
Alternatively, I go for a fresh homemade or bakery bought gluten-free loaf gone a bit stale.
Locally, (for the non GF) we use pane sciapo a long-lasting salt-free bread that Riccardo’s Nonna used to buy as filoni off the back of a green truck that would come to Montisola from Terni. This bread allowed her to get fourteen people though many a summer meal. When it goes stale it gets hard enough to kill a man, so while you can cut it with a knife, it will need to be softened with the recommended liquids before it can be broken up. Stale bread was used up in similar ways in every house across Italy as part of a homemade cucina povera. There was zero food waste. Nothing was ever thrown away.
Panzanella for a Party
GF, VE Serves 8-10
Ingredients:
200g GF friselle or freshly made stale bread
1kg fresh ripe garden tomatoes, roughly chopped
200g purple onion from Tropea or white spring onions, thinly sliced
300g cucumber, cut into quarters
A generous handful of basil leaves torn
A few stems of fresh marjoram leaves
Red wine, white wine or apple cider vinegar
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt + black pepper
Method:
1. Tear or break your stale bread into a large bowl.
2. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar and season with salt and pepper.
3. Soak the onions in a few tablespoons of vinegar and then transfer them to the bowel and let them rest on top of the bread for a half hour more or less.
4. Cut your juicy tomatoes directly into the bowl on top of the onions discarding the core. Then add your cucumbers, and torn basil leaves then toss and season to taste.
5. Rest at room temperature and toss again before serving.
Notes:
Ingredients such as garlic, anchovies and peppers are optional. I like oregano too. To soften stale bread across Italy people have also used plain water, sea water and wine!
Ingredients ratio is flexible based on what is available and what you prefer. Serves 4-6 as a main course and 8-10 as a side.