Wait a moment before you throw out the stale remains of that loaf of bread. Even as it stales, bread made with natural ingredients will continue to play its ancient role as the staff of life. (In Egypt, the Arabic word for bread, aish, also means life.) Imagine instead all the ways slices of days-old bread can be transformed into a restorative meal.
My preferred way to quickly revive yesterday’s bread is to toast it. Heat releases flavors in the wheat and caramelizes its sugar to create a crunchy, roasted wheat flavor. Drop a moist dollop of crushed olive paste or tuna salad on a slice, toasted or not, and it is born again as a tasty bruschetta.
In the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras dry bread becomes the key ingredient in rich bread puddings. Its single serving equivalent, French toast, is particularly flexible. Serve it for dessert with honey, syrup or ice cream, for breakfast with fruit or as a savory luncheon sandwich filled with sautéed onions and Gruyère cheese.
Possibly the oldest soup recipe was prepared by pouring hot broth over a thick slice of stale bread. If this sounds fanciful, try to imagine a French Onion Soup without the garlic-scented crouton and melted Gruyère cheese. Madeline Kamman’s 1976 classic, When French Women Cook introduced me to the elegant simplicity of Bread Soup. Her recipes combine bread soaked in milk with added broth and sauteed shallots. I have scaled back her addition of a copious amount of cream to one tablespoon of crème fraïche (or yogurt) drizzled over the surface. It’s a wonderfully comforting meal on a cold winter night.
The height of transformative baking with stale bread is Bread Pizza, and it is quicker and cheaper than having one delivered . Simply gather leftovers from the refrigerator: cheese, lunch meat, cooked vegetables, some parsley. Chop them up and mix them with a couple slices of day-old bread, crusts removed, soaked in water and mashed with a fork into a puree. I like to add a tablespoon of olive oil and a clove of diced garlic. Squeeze out the water in your hands for a toasted consistency; leave it wet if you prefer a pudding-like texture. Bake it in a 500 degree oven for 10 -12 minutes. I guarantee you will experience a childlike sense of satisfaction with your accomplishment.
