Panzanella is a perfect way to use up old bread while showcasing in-season tomatoes and cucumbers.

Jessica Webster | AnnArbor.com

Back in the good old days, when one could buy a plane ticket to Rome that cost less than one to Los Angeles, my friend Emily and I took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Italy.

I had just enough time to memorize a cassette's worth of key Italian phrases (Where's the bathroom? Two tickets to Florence, please.) and knock back a couple of travel guidebooks.

One of the guidebooks was written by travel guru Rick Steves — he of the "back door." Rick Steves' big thing is to experience a city the way a local would. His advice was to get yourself lost. Stray from the main thoroughfares, away from restaurants with tourist menus in English. Dig in to a meal with Real Italian People.

I drove Emily to the brink of madness trying to follow this strategy in Florence. Frankly, I am not sure that sending two women in their 20s off the beaten track in an unfamiliar country to find food was really the most brilliant of ideas, but I could not be dissuaded. Half-crazed with jet lag, I dragged us up one street and down another.

"How about this restaurant, Jess?" asked Em, hopefully. "I don't see any English words on the menu!"

"No. I see people with fanny packs. Real Italians don't wear fanny packs."

Starved, cranky, and thoroughly lost, we finally found a small, bustling, brightly-lit trattoria that seemed to satisfy all of Rick Steves' requirements. The people looked like Real Italians. Not one word of English to be found. In fact, no printed menus at all.

We took the one available table and were immediately greeted by a very friendly gentleman who proceeded to rattle off the menu for the day. In Italian. I didn't recognize a single word. This Eat Like A Real Italian plan wasn't working out very well at all.

The very friendly waiter and I gestured at each other until I was reasonably sure that we had arranged for him to bring us something delicious. And that he did.

The dish I remember most vividly from that night was a beautifully composed panzanella. I was trepidatious at first, as it appeared to be somewhat soggy bread tossed with vegetables. But I silently chanted "eat like a Real Italian" to myself and dug in. I was rewarded with a burst of flavor and textures that made me very glad I had dragged us all over the city to find this.

Panzanella was dreamed up as a way to use up old, stale bread. Sounds appetizing, right? But like panade (stale bread, greens, onions and scraps of cheese baked in broth) and coq au vin (tough chicken stewed in wine until it's edible), its delicious results have transcended the utilitarian origins.

The weather this summer has the tomato plants and basil in my backyard garden looking particularly bountiful. And thanks to my 9 year old's predilection for baguettes, we've almost always got stale ends littering our kitchen. This may well be our summer of panzanella.

Panzanella
(adapted from a recipe by New York Chef Sara Jenkins)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup stale toasted bread, torn into 1-inch pieces


• 1 large, ripe beefsteak tomato, cut into 1/2-inch dice


• 1 cucumber, cut into 1/4-inch slices


• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced


• 4 radishes, thinly sliced


• 1/4 cup whole basil leaves


• Red wine vinegar to taste


• Olive oil to taste


• Salt to taste

Method:
Sprinkle the toasted bread with a little water to soften and place into a large bowl. Add the tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, radishes and basil. Dress with the olive oil and vinegar and season with salt to taste. Allow the salad to sit for at least 15 minutes before serving. You can also prepare it a few hours ahead of time and allow it to sit for a couple of hours.

Yield: 4 servings as an appetizer

Jessica Webster leads the AnnArbor.com Food & Drink section. You can reach her at JessicaWebster@AnnArbor.com.