Stalemate or bread, staff of life and the stuff of sustenance
Home cooks have cobbled together nutritious meals with minimal ingredients for centuries. Through resourcefulness, and frugal times, many of those creations have become classic recipes still made today.
Bread as an ingredient is a prime example. Used as a leftover, from day-old to a rock-hard state, its use knows no end. It remains one of our most economical and versatile foods and should never go to waste.
French toast, for starters, is best when using day-old brioche or thick sliced fruit bread. Slices of stale baguette or Frenchstyle loaves are given new life in Spain rubbed with a ripe tomato half and garlic clove with a kiss of olive oil and sprinkling of salt, called pan con tomate.
In Italy, stale slices, dubbed as bruschetta, can be topped with anything from fragrant olive oil and thin shavings of cheese, to figs and prosciutto. Panzanella, an Italian bread salad, uses thick cubes of bread tossed in olive oil, red wine vinegar, tomatoes and basil for a delicious lunch.
And Caesar salad would be bereft without croutons.
Dakos, a revered Cretan dish, consists of soaked dried bread, or rusks, topped with chopped tomatoes and crumbled feta. (They serve this classic at Theo’s in Penticton.) Stuffing for a turkey is always best made with day-old bread, and bread puddings are breakfast magic.
The British bread sauce harkens back to Medieval times, but is still enjoyed today spiced with cloves and mace and served alongside roasted meats.
Beyond the loaf, there is the crumb, and when toasted or mixed with a myriad of ingredients from sweet to savoury, home cooks have another flavour tool to add to their culinary arsenal. Crumbs can be added to soup as a thickener, to meatballs to bind or extend more expensive ingredients, or used as a toasty crusty topping.
For a crusty top, try adding chopped lemon zest for an aromatic citrus hit, or blend crumbs with sugar and toasted and chopped nuts to a simple dessert of cooked apples. Plain crumbs, with nothing but salt and pepper or herbs, give a crispy coating to schnitzel or eggplant parmigiano, fish, or chicken.
And, don’t forget that lovely duo of garlic and parsley mixed with bread crumbs and butter or good olive oil that bring a lovely textural note to a baked tomato, macaroni and cheese and other pasta dishes, classic preparations found in both Roman and Renaissance recipes. (One of my favourites is spaghetti topped with crumbs, first toasted in olive oil with minced garlic, chilies and anchovies.)
At most bakeries you can buy day-old bread at half the price, and crumbs can be made easily by first drying out pieces in a 200-degree oven. Whip up the dried bread in a food processor, if you have one. If you don’t, try putting the dried bread in a plastic bag and use the hammer-and-roll method of crumb making with a strong rolling pin. Depending on the bread shape you can also try grating it. Whichever way, try to make your own. They taste so much better than the prepackaged sawdust-like products on the market. (Although, super crisp panko crumbs are great in a pinch.)
Another match made in heaven is bread and soup, and there are many recipes that find stale bread as an integral ingredient. Ribollita, for example, is a rustic Italian staple of torn bread in broth with beans – traditionally cannellini beans – and whatever vegetables are on hand. More humble still is acquacotta (cooked water), of Tuscan origin, consisting of water, tomatoes, olive oil, and stale bread.
Açordas, are Portugal’s version, often using fish stock as a base with torn bread, garlic, egg and a drizzle of olive oil. In France, the modest restorative mille-fanti, sees pureed bread, Parmesan and eggs whisked into chicken broth. And don’t forget a slice of stale bread is the crowning glory with cheese in French onion soup.
Then there are the flatbreads. Tortillas, a staple in Mexico, are delicious fresh right off a hot comal, but frugal cooks use leftover and dried tortillas in the classic chilaquiles, a hearty dish of tomato or tomatillo-based sauce with pieces of the dried tortilla thrown in to sop up the sauce – like putting crackers in soup. It’s a filling, economical and delicious respite when only minimal ingredients are at hand.
Pita bread too, ubiquitous to the Middle East, is used in its day-old state for fattoush, another kind of bread salad with peppers, cucumber, tomatoes and a sprinkling of sumac, or in hot casseroles known as fatta.
So before you dismiss — or heaven forbid throw out — bread, tortillas or pita that’s past its prime, look to the world’s culinary playbook for inspiration, a simple way to nourish yourself, your family and friends.
With fork and pen in hand, and a passion for culinary adventure, Shelora Sheldan, writer, cook and traveller, goes in search of the delectable.