It’s pizza. It’s a salad. It’s everybody’s favorite! In this pizza-inspired Panzanella salad, cubed ciabatta bread, pops of tomatoes, fresh basil, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese and other classic pizza toppings create an fun and unique dish that’s perfect for parties, as a crave-able dinner salad, an elevated side dish or light lunch.
Craving more pizza? Try Deep Dish Skillet Pizza or Pizza Stuffed Pasta Shells.
What Is Panzanella Salad?
Panzanella is a Tuscan-style chopped salad made with toasted bread, tomatoes, fresh basil and onions. It marinates in a light Italian vinaigrette for loads of zesty flavor that is incredibly fresh and delicious. It’s everything you dream Italian eating would be!
This version takes the original Panzanella salad a step further by adding a few classic pizza toppings to create a unique pizza style salad.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s packed with pizza toppings, making pizza night at home so easy and so good!
- Pizza Panzanella Salad is fun to serve and fun to eat! It’s an unexpected recipe that is ALWAYS a hit. Plan to be asked for the recipe over and over again.
- It makes a great light meal, works as an elevated side dish and is perfect to take to potluck parties. (Toss in your bread when you get there.)
- It’s completely customizable so that you’re always serving what your family likes best.
- Have I mentioned that it tastes GOOD? And I do mean really good. The ciabatta bread tastes just like artisan pizza crust, the brininess of the olives and banana peppers is spot on, the tomatoes are bright, the pepperoni is salty, and the Italian seasoning, dressing, Parm and fresh basil bring the flavor.
Recipe Ingredients & Overview
I’ll walk through an overview of ingredients & steps in these next sections along with helpful tips!
Look for specifics at the end of the post in the recipe card.
- cherry or grape tomatoes
- ciabatta bread
- fresh basil
- red onion
- mozzarella pearls
- pepperoni slices (regular or turkey)
- black olives
- pickled banana pepper slices
- grated parmesan cheese
- Italian seasoning
- red pepper flakes (optional)
- Italian salad dressing
- olive oil
Ingredient Substitutions/Additions: Instead of pepperoni slices, use browned Italian sausage crumbles if you love sausage pizza.
In the summer when tomatoes are fresh, use salted heirloom tomatoes cut into wedges for amazing flavor. Also, using a variety of tomato colors makes for a really beautiful, elevated salad presentation.
Sourdough bread works for this recipe if you can’t find Ciabatta bread. But I am really partial to how the Ciabatta tastes in this pizza panzanella salad.
Make this salad after your favorite pizza. Add or omit any ingredients to make it what you love!
How To Make This Pizza-Inspired Panzanella Salad
Dry out the Bread Cubes. Cube the ciabatta bread, and arrange the cubes in a single layer on a baking sheet. Lightly brush them with a little olive oil. Place in preheated oven for 5-8 minutes to dry out.
Crisp the Pepperoni. Cut pepperoni slices in half and place on another baking sheet. Place in same oven as bread and allow to crisp. Remove pepperoni from oven and place on a paper towel and blot to remove grease.
Chop. Chop tomatoes, basil and onion.
Assemble. Add all ingredients to a large salad bowl. Toss. Let sit for 10 minutes and serve!
Tips For The Best Panzanella Pizza Salad
- Don’t skip crisping/cooking your pepperoni. This step really does add a lot of real pizza flavor to the whole salad, not to mention texture.
- After cooking the pepperoni slices, you will need to place them on a couple of paper towels and blot them to remove the grease. Turkey pepperoni, of course, will have much less of this.
- Drying out your bread cubes is preferable toasting them. So place them in that 350 oven and let them get nice and crisp. This will also make a better salad than stale bread or croutons.
- Lightly dress your salad. An overdressed salad is much more likely to get soggy.
- If I properly crisp the bread and go light on the dressing, I can even eat leftovers the next day.
- If you want to make this salad ahead of time, make the salad and dress it, but leave out the bread. Toss the bread in anywhere from 30 minutes to right before you serve it.
What To Serve with Pizza Panzanella Salad
Since you’ve made this salad after your favorite pizza, treat serving it just like you would any other pizza night! Serve it with your pizza favorites like Loaded Boneless Buffalo Chicken Wings or Cheesy Stuffed Olive Bread.
You can also serve it with a bowl of Creamy Tomato Basil Soup, a pan of Tomato Alfredo Baked Ziti or next to a juicy Cast Iron Skillet Steak for a sit-down dinner feel.
Always serve it with extra Parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes and extra dressing that your guests can add on their own.
More Fun Salad Recipes To Make
Pizza Panzanella Salad
Ingredients
- 6 ounces ciabatto bread, cubed
- ¼ cup olive oil to lightly brush on bread
- 35 slices pepperoni, halved
- 16 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- ½ cup fresh basil (generous ½ cup), rough chopped
- 3 thin slices red onion, quartered
- 8 ounces mozzarella pearls
- ⅔ cup pickled banana pepper slices (or pepperoncini slices)
- ½ cup medium black olives
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1-2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- red pepper flakes
- ⅓ cup Italian dressing (with parmesan or romano cheese)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Cube bread. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. Lightly brush with olive oil. Place in preheated oven for 5-8 minutes to dry out.
- Cut pepperoni slices in half and place on another baking sheet. Place in same oven as bread and allow to crisp. Remove pepperoni from oven and place on a paper towel and blot to remove grease.
- Chop tomatoes, basil and onion.
- Add all ingredients to a large salad bowl. Toss. Let sit for 10 minutes and serve!
Video
Notes
- Don’t skip crisping/cooking your pepperoni. This step really does add a lot of real pizza flavor to the whole salad, not to mention texture.
- Drying out your bread cubes is preferable toasting them. So place them in that 350 oven and let them get nice and crisp. This will also make a better salad than stale bread or croutons.
- Lightly dress your salad. An overdressed salad is much more likely to get soggy.
- If I properly crisp the bread and go light on the dressing, I can even eat leftovers the next day.
- If you want to make this salad ahead of time, make the salad and dress it, but leave out the bread. Toss the bread in anywhere from 30 minutes to right before you serve it.
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