Panada is a traditional Italian soup made with crusty or stale bread and broth, often updated by chefs with modern ingredients. It was historically a peasant staple to prevent waste by using leftover food. The soup is flavored with Italian cheese and can include vegetables, meats, or eggs. The bread is added to the soup just before serving to moisten it without falling apart.
Panada is a soup composed mainly of cubes of crusty or stale bread that are moistened with broth. It is a common dish that is served in traditional Italian cuisine. While it was historically a dish made by farmers, it is often updated by chefs using more modern ingredients to create unique versions.
Bread-based soups were a common peasant staple because bread cubes could be used as a way to stretch leftover foods and prevent waste. Small amounts of vegetables, cheeses, meats, or other ingredients that weren’t enough to make another full side dish or entrée on their own could be mixed with broth and bread to make a soup that was hearty enough to serve as a main course. This helped ensure that no food was unnecessarily thrown away, especially when food supplies were limited.
One of the main ingredients of panada soup is crusty bread. Because the bread is diced before being added to the broth, it must be sturdy and hard or it will become too soggy and fall apart in the soup instead of holding its shape and simply softening. Stale bread was typically used for soup as it was already hard. Ciabatta, focaccia, and other large Italian white breads tend to be the most common bread varieties used for soup.
Panada ingredients traditionally also include a broth or other liquid. Beef broth is a common variety, but chicken or vegetable broth can also be used, as well as milk, wine, water, or a combination of liquids. The broth and bread are usually flavored with Italian cheese to add more flavor to the dish. Parmigiano Reggiano, a hard Italian cheese, is the cheese usually used for soup because just a small amount is often enough to flavor the soup. Any leftover produce, such as zucchini, green beans or tomatoes, can be added to the soup, as can heavy cream or eggs to thicken the broth.
The process of making panada soup begins with cutting crusty or stale bread into cubes or thick pieces. All of your favorite vegetables and other flavoring ingredients are chopped up and added to a large soup pot and covered with stock, milk, wine, or water. The soup is then heated to a gentle boil and simmered for at least 20 minutes to allow the vegetables to cook through; however, the longer the soup cooks, the richer the flavor, so some cooks will cook the soup for as long as possible. Bread cubes are typically added into the simmering soup about 10 minutes before servings to moisten them without overcooking and causing them to fall apart.
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