Throughout Central Italy, from Florence down to Rome, the most satisfying of salads is based on that old standby of the ingenious poor, bread and water. Stale bread is moistened, but not drenched, with cold water, the other ingredients of the salad you’ll find below are added, and everything is tossed with olive oil and vinegar. The bread, saturated with the salad’s condiments and juices, dissolves to a grainy consistency like loose, course polenta. Given the right bread - not supermarket white, but gutsy, country bread such as that of Tuscany or Abruzzi - there is no change one can bring to the traditional version that will improve it. If you have a source for such bread, make the salad with it in the manner I have just described. If you must rely on standard, commercial bread, the alternative solution suggested in the recipe that follows will yield very pleasant results.
