Warm Panzanella with Tuna, Blistered Tomatoes, and Basil
Torn whole wheat bread crisped in olive oil and tossed hot with blistered cherry tomatoes, cucumber, olives, arugula, and flaked tuna in a garlicky vinegar dressing.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Panzanella was invented to use up bread that had gone hard, and the Tuscan version leaves it to soften in tomato juice on the counter. I do it the other way around: the bread goes into a hot skillet with olive oil until the edges are properly crisp, and it meets the tomatoes while both are still warm. You get the same soaked, savory quality in about four minutes, and the pieces keep some structure rather than turning to mush. It is the fastest real dinner I know that does not involve a pan of meat, and it works best in exactly the weeks when tomatoes are worth eating.
The tomatoes do two jobs, so I treat them two ways. Half go into the pan cut side down and blister until they collapse, which gives you the hot sweet juice that seasons the bread. The other half stay whole and go in cold at the end, so there is something bright and fresh against all that softness. Tuna goes in last in big flakes rather than being stirred to shreds, the arugula wilts only where it touches warm bread, and everything gets one gentle fold. Toss it too hard and you have a bowl of paste rather than a salad.
It eats like a full dinner because of the tuna and the bread together, and I like that it comes to the table on one platter for people to work through. A halved garlic clove rubbed around the inside of the bowl is an old trick worth doing, since it perfumes everything without putting a sharp bite of garlic in any one mouthful. Give it five minutes to sit before you serve so the juices settle into the bread, and put the vinegar bottle on the table for whoever wants more.
Ingredients
- 6 thick slices whole wheat country bread, a day or two old, torn into rough 1-inch pieces
- 3 (5 oz) cans chunk light tuna in water, drained and broken into large flakes
- 3 cups ripe cherry tomatoes, half of them halved and half left whole
- 1 English cucumber, halved lengthwise and cut into thick half moons
- 3 packed cups arugula
- 1/2 small red onion, sliced paper thin
- 1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and torn in half
- 1 packed cup fresh basil leaves, torn
- 2 garlic cloves, 1 halved and 1 grated
- 3 1/2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Set up the bowl and the onion: Rub the inside of a large serving bowl with the cut sides of the halved garlic clove and leave it. Put the sliced red onion in a small bowl with the lemon juice and a pinch of the salt and set it aside to soften while you cook. Ten minutes in acid takes the harsh edge off and turns the slices pink.
- Crisp the bread: Warm 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the torn bread and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, tossing every minute, until the pieces are golden at the corners and crisp outside but still yielding in the middle. Tip them into the garlic-rubbed bowl.
- Blister the tomatoes: Return the skillet to the heat with 1/2 tbsp more oil. Add the halved tomatoes cut side down with the rest of the salt and leave them alone for 3 minutes, until the cut faces darken and the skins loosen. Press a few with a spoon so they give up their juice, then take the pan off the heat.
- Dress the bread while it is hot: Scrape the tomatoes and every spoonful of their juice over the bread. Whisk the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil with the balsamic vinegar, the grated garlic, and the black pepper, pour it over, and fold twice. Let it sit for 3 minutes so the bread drinks up what is in the bottom of the bowl.
- Fold in the cold things: Add the whole tomatoes, the cucumber, the drained onion with its lemon juice, the olives, the arugula, and most of the basil, and fold gently two or three times. Lay the flaked tuna over the top, scatter the last of the basil, and bring it to the table while the bread is still warm.
Variations
- White bean panzanella: Fold in a can of drained cannellini beans with the cucumber for a softer, heartier bowl.
- Peppers and capers: Add a jar of roasted red peppers cut into strips and a spoonful of capers for a sharper, more southern version.
- Sardines rather than tuna: Lay two tins of drained sardines over the top for a stronger, oilier fish that stands up to the vinegar.
- Egg on top: Halve four soft-boiled eggs over the salad, which turns it into something close to a Provencal plate.
- Peach and basil: In high summer, cut a ripe peach into wedges and fold it in with the tomatoes for a sweet note against the olives.
Storage & Leftovers
This is at its best within an hour of making it, and I say that as somebody who eats leftovers cheerfully. It keeps two days in a sealed container in the refrigerator, and by then the bread has gone soft all the way through and the salad has become something closer to a savory pudding, which is not a bad thing to find at lunchtime.
There is no good way to reheat it, so do not try. Take it out of the refrigerator twenty minutes before you want it, let it come up to room temperature, and wake it up with a splash of vinegar, a thread of olive oil, and a handful of fresh basil. Cold bread salad straight from the refrigerator tastes of nothing.
It does not freeze. If you want to get ahead, crisp the bread up to a day early and keep it in a paper bag at room temperature, chop the cucumber and slice the onion in the morning, and leave the tomatoes and the tossing until the last five minutes.
Notes & Tips
- Tear the bread, do not cube it: Torn pieces have rough faces that crisp unevenly and catch dressing in their crags. Neat knife-cut cubes brown flat and slide off the fork.
- Use a wide skillet: The bread needs to sit in one layer to crisp. Piled up it steams, and you get chewy pieces with pale sides no matter how long you leave them.
- Soak the onion: Ten minutes in lemon juice turns paper-thin slices sweet and pink. Straight from the board they overpower everything else in the bowl.
- Save every drop of tomato juice: That is the seasoning for the bread. Scrape the pan out with a spatula rather than leaving the best of it stuck to the metal.
- Fold, do not stir: Two or three gentle turns keeps the bread in pieces and the tuna in flakes. Stirring breaks both down into something you eat with a spoon.
- Season at the end: The olives and the tuna both bring salt. Taste after everything is folded and add more only if it needs it, since bread hides saltiness until it does not.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Bread, tuna, and tomatoes are what make this a dinner rather than a side salad. The bread gives it weight and soaks up everything in the bowl, the tuna brings the protein in big flakes, and the tomatoes and cucumber keep it juicy and fresh right through.
- Tuna is a firm, mild fish that flakes into large pieces when you leave it alone, and it carries a good deal of protein along with some of the omega-3 fats that oily fish are known for.
- Cherry tomatoes cooked cut side down give up a hot sweet juice, and heating them is what makes their lycopene easier for the body to take up, so the blistered half of the pan is doing more than adding color.
- Whole wheat bread torn and crisped in olive oil holds its shape in the bowl and brings the fiber that comes with the whole grain, which is a good part of why a bread salad holds you the way it does.
- Arugula, torn basil, olives, and a rubbed garlic clove are the flavors you notice first, peppery and sweet and salty in the same forkful, and the vinegar and lemon are what keep all that olive oil bright.
- As you eat, notice which pieces of bread stayed crisp and which have gone soft with tomato juice, and let a salad that took ten minutes still be worth sitting down for.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of bread works best?
An open, chewy country loaf with a real crust, a day or two past fresh. Sourdough is excellent. Soft sandwich bread collapses into paste the moment the tomato juice hits it, and a very fresh loaf steams rather than crisping in the pan, so buy the bread the day before if you can.
Can I use fresh tuna?
Yes. Sear a pound of tuna steaks hard in a smoking hot pan, about 90 seconds a side for pink in the middle, rest them for five minutes, and slice them across the grain over the top. It makes a more elegant plate, though the canned version is what I make on a weeknight.
Mine came out soggy. What went wrong?
Either the bread was not crisp enough to start with, or it sat too long before serving. Cook the pieces until they are properly hard at the corners, and once the dressing goes on, get the salad to the table within ten minutes. That short window is when the texture is right.
Can I leave the fish out?
Yes, and it is the classic Tuscan version. Add a can of drained cannellini beans and a handful of toasted almonds so the bowl still eats like a dinner, or tear a ball of fresh mozzarella over the top just before serving.