Beyond bruschetta: the regional bread and tomato salads of Italy

Let’s start with the basics: this simple food represents the pinnacle of Italian summer and features heavily in many people’s childhood memories, when grannies and mothers only had to squash some ripe tomatoes on a slice of bread and add some salt and extra virgin olive oil to give their kids the tastiest snack ever. The grown-up version is the well-known bruschetta, where toasted bread is generously rubbed with fresh garlic.

Also called panmollo (soaked bread), this recipe is a staple of central Italian cuisine and many local versions exist. The main ingredients are tomatoes and stale bread (if you can get it, use pane sciocco, a salt-free Tuscan loaf) cut into chunks and then soaked in water and vinegar. Some pieces disintegrate into the liquid, while others stay whole. Then some extra virgin olive oil, salt, red onions and freshly chopped basil are added to finish off the dish.

Similar to panzanella, this tasty Abbruzan summer dish is made of stale wood-fired bread plunged in water and sprinkled with vinegar, and almost whatever you can find in the fridge: from cucumbers (the local variety totarello is best) to peppers and spring onions. What really makes a difference is the local pear-shaped tomatoes, ripe yet solid and full of taste, so be sure to try it if you’re ever in Abruzzo.

To prepare this popular Southern dish that used to feed the workforce on a daily basis you need the local freselle (in Neapolitan) or frise (in Puglian): oblong or round crisp durum wheat bagels cut in half and then baked again for extra crunchiness. They are soaked either quickly or for a long time (according to how crunchy you like it) in water and then seasoned. Again, the basics are extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes – possibly San Marzano or the small and tasty datterini growing near the Vesuvius volcano – salt, spring onion and garlic. Than you can add at will: tuna, anchovies, capers, basil, oregano, rocket, olives or cucumber (in Puglia they use the carosello cucumbers which are easier to digest). In Naples this is called caponata, not to be confused with the rich Sicilian recipe made of fried vegetables.

A fantastic one-course summer meal, acquasala is a very simple and tasty recipe, a sort of mix between panzanella and frisa: in a bowl, they combine small chunks of stale bread – gently soaked, then squeezed out and crumbled – with chopped tomatoes, local cucumber, red onion, spring onion or the local sponzale (a sort of red leek), extra virgin olive oil and oregano or basil. Some also add roasted vegetables such as peppers, courgettes or aubergines. Letting it rest for a couple hours, gently stirring now and then, means the bread soaks up all the delicious flavours.

In Calabria everything comes with chilli peppers, which feature in this fresh and simple recipe. Stale bread soaked in water is paired with extra virgin olive oil, chillies, a sprinkle of vinegar, the tasty local red onion, fresh basil, ripe tomatoes and some greener ones. Some also add the typical ammaccate (‘beaten’) green olives, which are seasoned with fennel seeds and more chilli.

In Sicily, they go big: a whole (small) loaf is cut in half and seasoned with salt, pepper and a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil, then filled with other local ingredients: tomatoes, oregano, anchovies or tuna in oil, olives, salted ricotta or fresh cheese. A very tasty Mediterranean sandwich. In Trapani, a city in western Sicily, they throw chunks of stale bread into salamureci, a chilled soup made of chopped tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, crushed garlic and basil, water and ground almonds.