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Panzanella: the perfect recipe
Panzanella: the perfect recipe

Video: Panzanella: the perfect recipe

Video: Panzanella: the perfect recipe
Video: Crispy Panzanella Salad - Tuscan Bread & Tomato Salad Recipe 2024, March
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Who knows what a panzanella feels like. It is a question that I ask myself every now and then.

Could it be because of the heat in your head before you even want to eat something simple?

It is much more logical to ask, why dedicate words and words and even the perfect recipe to panzanella? After all, what does it take to do it? Just a little hunger, stale bread and humility.

Boccaccio vs. Bronzino

Not a few are those who cite Boccaccio's bread wash, as if we had all read the VII story of the VIII day of the Decameron.

What women and men of culture are we that we quote from memory, with a certain emphasis: The wife of the worker, given her to eat bread washed and then undressed, put her in bed.

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We do not even hide that we know the Florentine painter Bronzino (1503-1572), as if this Agnolo di Cosimo aspired more to our gratitude than to that of the Medici.

We are sure to read his mind, assimilating to panzanella that salad of minced onion with porcella netta (purslane) and citriuoli to be enjoyed with dipped bread.

Yet, from the height of our in-depth knowledge of Italian culinary culture, we are ready to put the tomato in the zanella.

What are you panzanella?

It is impossible to hide the fact that the panzanella is a panmòllo and that it is therefore made of bread. But how can we accept that this traditionally stale and unsalted bread salad was born as an onion-based dish? Didn't we really listen to Bronzino?

We are less embarrassed to be undecided whether to entrust the paternity of the art of soaking bread to Tuscan peasants or sailors, whether they are Tuscan or Ligurian. Hunger or sea life deserve a respect that we want to leave intact.

So what to do with this onion? When did the tomato arrive?

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Bravo, think about the discovery of America.

Meanwhile, the well-known food blogger Emiko Davies beats everyone. Do you think your grandparents lived in luxury? If I, in Friuli, I heard my mother scold my father because he was lucky as a child to have oranges for Christmas; Emiko, in his adopted Tuscany, heard the farmers remember the luxury of eating tomatoes after the Second World War.

So, before the luxuries, what panzanella did you do? There was no other solution than water and focus on the particular onion.

Can I continue, without delighting you, with a discussion about the type of tomato that we moderns should use in a panzanella? Is it legitimate not to dwell on Florentine ribbed tomatoes and ox heart?

It's not all tomato

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We, modern gourmets, try to digest onion in the manner of Bronzino with the philosophy of adding bassil and rocket. Yes, let's look at what else goes with panmolle.

Cucumbers and basil seem to be needed in the basic version of the contemporary panzanella, as confirmed by Jul's Kitchen in La Cucina dei Mercati in Toscana. Before the dressing with vinegar, oil and salt, however, there is room for much more and I say it, not only for gluttony, but to animate the discussion even more. What do you do with tuna, mozzarella, olives? Do you discard them or add them?

After all, panzanella comes from Panzana, aka pappa, and therefore can be rich. Do we need to set limits? Even if it came from the union of bread and zanella, the bowl or tureen, it would leave the space open to infinite variations.

What happens to the bread?

It doesn't rain on silly or Tuscan bread. We have to wet it.

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There are those who identify geographical limits to the ways and uses of soaking bread. In Tuscany and Lazio, soaking is common before crushing the bread to make it lose its water.

While in Umbria and the Marche one of my weak points as a modern woman would seem to prevail: it is the other ingredients and not the water that wet the bread.

Emiko Davies is even more pragmatic, leaving the choice between soaking the bread in a bowl with water and vinegar or simply soaking the bread under running water. I love his courage in saying it even before doing it. By doing so, it respects the rustic character of this bread salad.

I do not know, however, what to say in defense of those who do not divide the bread into small pieces. They exist too and I'm curious to know why they don't break bread?

The perfect recipe

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Indicative ingredients for 4 people

200 grams of Tuscan bread, preferably stale

2 ripe tomatoes

1 cucumber

1 red onion

fresh basil

extra virgin olive oil

red wine vinegar

fine salt

freshly ground black pepper

Possible additions:

garlic

capers

yellow pepper

etc. etc.

Break the stale bread into small pieces of about 2 centimeters.

If the bread is actually stale, wet the pieces of bread with cold water. After about ten minutes, squeeze the bread well.

If, on the other hand, the bread is young (therefore the panzanelle is prepared more for gluttony than for necessity), this step can be skipped. It will be the tomato juice that will soften the bread.

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Thinly slice the red onion. If this has a rather pungent aroma, it is good to leave the sliced onion to soak for a few minutes. Then just drain and dry it, before adding it to the rest of the panzanella.

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Peel the cucumber. Cut it in half, or in quarters, lengthwise. Finally, slice it thinly.

PS. Yes, cucumber and onion can also be sliced with the food processor.

All that remains is to clean the tomatoes and cut them into irregular pieces. There are those who separate the seeds from the juice and those who, like me, do not disdain anything about tomatoes.

You can add salted capers, cleaned of salt, or red pepper cut into small pieces, as the Italian-British foodwriter Anna Del Conte does in The Concise Gastronomy of Italy. Then, being a recovery dish, the additions, as mentioned, are endless to the cry of “tuna in oil and beyond”.

This, I repeat, is the basic version of panzanella.

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Prepare an emulsion of extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Anna Del Conte also suggests to her British readers to enrich the flavor of extra virgin olive oil by leaving a clove of garlic and a little red pepper in the oil for a few minutes, which will then be filtered.

In a large bowl, mix the vegetables, including hand-broken basil leaves, with the bread. Then, season.

Mix everything with the wooden spoon. Of course, there is also the Jamie Oliver method of hands. Not to be disdained in many cases, but for the panzanella I prefer to leave all the seasoning for the bread, rather than spoil the hands.

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That's not all. The panzanella should be left to rest for at least 30-60 minutes in the refrigerator.

It should not be served iced, but this step is for the flavors to mix with each other and conquer the bread.

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