The bread is the whole dish and it has to be genuinely stale — not toasted fresh bread, actually stale — because you want it to absorb the dressing and the tomato juice without turning to mush. Chef Emily was clear about that and it's why most versions fail. Salting the tomatoes first and using the liquid that comes out as part of the dressing was the detail I hadn't seen before, and it's the sort of thing that makes you rethink how you build a salad.
Elena