You like pasta salad, right? And salads made with rice? Panzanella is another kind of carbohydrate concoction. As you can probably tell by the name, this salad made with dry bread is Italian, though the Lebanese make a similarly delicious version. Using leftovers is one way many salads got their start. But clever cooks don't just serve yesterday's ingredients at room temperature — they transform them. In this case, stale bread teams with the season's juiciest tomatoes.

The result is so delicious, we had to figure out a way to make the salad without waiting for day-old bread. The trick: We start with fresh bread and toast it, which also keeps the salad from becoming soggy.