Breaking Bread
Bread love it or hate it you know you want it! Salads want bread too but in the shape of a sexy crouton ! I mean your salad needs something sometimes to dress it up a bit and so instead of throwing away that stale or leftover bread make some croutons or breadcrumbs with it. When you get take out and they give you bread don’t let it go to waste. Let it sit on your counter in a paper bad for a day then you’re ready to prepare some tasty croutons. In Italian breadcrumbs are called “Pangrattato”. This week I’m going to use my fresh batch I’ve made for Eggplant or Melanzana Parmigiana .They are also perfect for meatballs and breasts of chicken and turkey to make Cotoletta mmmmm… It literally takes less than 15 minutes to prepare croutons and bread crumbs. You can bake them on the same tray. The recipe is exactly the same, but for breadcrumbs all you’re going to do different is after slicing your bread pulse them in your food processor to get them into crumbs. You can pulse them finer but I like mine with a little “chunk ” to it. For croutons you can opt to remove the hard crust (I did on the sourdough) and just use the softer white center part . Drizzle both in olive oil , add whatever seasoning you like and bake for maybe 5 minutes at 375F or 170 c until they are toasty and that’s it! I did a batch with an olive oil butter mixture and added my spicy Piri Piri chili powder and it was so good! Grating fresh Parmigiana Reggiano or pecorino cheese on top is so good too. That’s all there is to it! They add such a delicious hearty kick to your salads, soups , or honestly just even to snack on ! A great way to use up leftover bread in a tasty way. XO Tera
