Some kitchen hacks for no-waste cooking, even if they are not historical. This video shows:
1. Panzanella: a nutritious Tuscan bread salad with tomatoes, onion, basil, olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar and salt. Who likes can add some chili pepper, too.
2. Bread patties: Stale bread can also be used to make inexpensive and tasty bread patties. For a more elaborate version tuck a piece of cheese inside the patties before frying.
3. Capuns are a kind of Swiss dumplings enriched with dried meat and wrapped in chard leaves. As with other kinds of knödel, you can prepare the dough including stale bread.
4. A sop is maybe the easiest and oldest way to use old bread: It is cut or torn into pieces and then soaked in a liquid, like broth or wine or milk. The dish I am preparing here is the provencal aïgo boulido (“boiled water” – what an understatement!).
5. Ymerdrys is a Danish mix of black bread crumbles with brown sugar that is eaten on ymer, a Danish milk product similar to buttermilk, alternatively on yogurt.
6. Fattoush is a Levantine salad that is prepared from dry, toasted flatbread, vegetables and herbs.
7. Bread tiramisù: The mouth-watering Italian dessert is usually made with ladyfingers. If need arises, the ladyfingers can be replaced with stale white bread or cake and, behold, the result is really great!
8. The Spanish garlic soup ajoblanco is based mainly on stale white bread and ground almonds, adding garlic, olive oil, a dash of white vinegar and salt. It is served cold and is often garnished with grapes.
9. Czech dumplings are mostly made of stale bread. They are cooked rolled in a kitchen towel, cut into slices with a thread and served with roast meat and sauce.
10. Pasta con la mollica, pasta with breadcrumbs, is a traditional Southern Italian poor man’s food that does not need to hide behind the most exquisite pasta creations.
11. White sauce: Making gravy from stale bread is a tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages, when bread crumbs were the most common thickener.
12. Salade lyonnaise with croûtons is a mouth watering French salad consisting of green salad with crunchy bread croutons, crispy bacon, mustard vinaigrette and poached egg.
13. Polpette di pane: These Apulian bread balls with cheese are absolutely gorgeous.
14. Bread gratin: Slices of stale bread can be layered with vegetables and other ingredients of your choice, moistened with a little broth or milk and cheese – ready is a superbe inexpensive meal. Feel free to improvise according to your taste and supplies!
15. French toast: savoury & sweet: Dust them with sugar and cinnamon. You can also prepare savoury French toasts by adding grated parmesan cheese to the milk and egg, serving them with fresh herbs.
16. Pappa al pomodoro is an easy Tuscan bread sop made from tomato sauce, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and basil. It can be served hot or cold.
17. Bread soups made from soaked bread are traditionally found wherever bread is eaten. I have chosen this creamy recipe from the Alpine region.
18. Bread chips: Toast thin slices of old bread in the oven with a little olive oil and sprinkled with some salt (and other spices or herbs) to make crispy bread chips.
19. New from old: You can also add old bread to your bread dough and bake tasty fresh bread rolls.
20. Vegetables such as zucchini, eggplants, peppers, etc. can be stuffed with a mixture of bread crumbs, their own pulp, garlic, olive oil, grated cheese and herbs and baked in the oven.
21. Gazpacho: The preparation of the famous Andalusian vegetable soup begins with soaking stale bread, to which mediterranean summer vegetables, olive oil and a dash of vinegar are added and pounded in a mortar or pureed with a blender. Gazpacho is served cold.
22. French onion soup is topped with a slice of bread, covered with cheese and quickly gratinated in the oven, thus creating a hearty and warming winter meal.
23. Breadcrumbs are perhaps the easiest way to use stale bread, by grating it finely. They can be used in many ways, for example to thicken sauces or, as in this recipe, to bread fish, meat or vegetables. To do this, dip the food morsels in flour, dip in beaten egg, then roll in breadcrumbs and finally fry them.
24. From the many bread puddings around the world, I have chosen the Egyptian Umm Ali (“Ali’s mother”). To prepare Umm Ali, cut stale bread or puff pastry into small pieces, mix with pistachios, raisins and sugar, cover with milk, sprinkle with cinnamon and bake in the oven until the surface is golden brown.
You can find more recipes in my cookbooks “GARUM: Recipes from the Past“, “From Eden to Jerusalem: Recipes from the Time of the Bible“, or “VEGETUS: Vegetarian Recipes from the Past“. Or, for quick and easy recipes adapted to tiny kitchens, “Cooking on the Move: 100 simple gourmet recipes for mobile kitchens”.
Music: Josef Suk, Serenade, Op 6 (public domain, YouTube audio library)
Panzanella is a nutritious Tuscan bread salad that is great for using up stale bread, which is combined with tomatoes, onion, basil, olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar and salt. Who likes can add some chili pepper, too. And if you end up with leftover tomato-soaked bread pieces, why not turn them into bread patties?
Stale bread can also be used to make inexpensive and tasty bread patties by mixing the soaked bread cubes with chopped onions, dried tomatoes or mushrooms, breadcrumbs, capers, salt, herbs and spices to taste and frying them in oil. Serve the finished bread patties with mustard and a salad.
For a more elaborate version tuck a piece of cheese inside the patties before frying. Capuns are a kind of Swiss dumplings enriched with dried meat and wrapped in chard leaves (or wild spinach), cooked in broth and topped with grated cheese.
As with other kinds of knödel, you can prepare the dough including stale bread. A sop is maybe the easiest and oldest way to use old bread: It is cut or torn into pieces and then soaked in a liquid, like broth or wine or milk.
The dish I am preparing here is the provencal aïgo boulido (“boiled water” – what an understatement!) and it consists of a light broth made of sage and/or other herbs, garlic, olive oil and salt poured over pieces of bread and some grated cheese.
Who likes can add a raw eggyolk or, alternatively, a soft-boiled egg. Ymerdrys is a Danish mix of black bread crumbles with brown sugar that is eaten on ymer, a Danish milk product similar to buttermilk, alternatively on yogurt. It is a popular breakfast which I used to enjoy as a child.
Fattoush is a Levantine salad that is prepared from dry, toasted flatbread, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and herbs such as parsley and mint, plus a salad dressing of olive oil and lemon juice with garlic, sumac, salt and pepper. The mouth-watering Italian dessert is usually made with ladyfingers, soaked in coffee and
Topped by a cream made of mascarpone, egg yolks, sugar and an optional dash of liquor, dusted with cocoa. If need arises, the ladyfingers can be replaced with stale white bread or cake and, behold, the result is really great! The
Spanish garlic soup ajoblanco is based mainly on stale white bread and ground almonds, adding garlic, olive oil, a dash of white vinegar and salt. Ajoblanco is served cold and is often garnished with grapes. Czech dumplings are mostly made of stale bread.
They are cooked rolled in a kitchen towel, cut into slices with a thread and served with roast meat and sauce. You can also add pieces of mushrooms into the dough to make mushroom knedlíky. Pasta con la mollica, pasta with breadcrumbs, is a traditional Southern Italian poor man’s
Food that does not need to hide behind the most exquisite pasta creations. The breadcrumbs are toasted in a pan until golden brown, adding olive oil, garlic and a couple of chopped anchovies and then mixed into the spaghetti along with parsley and chili.
Making gravy from stale bread is a tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages, when bread crumbs were the most common thickener. In Great Britain, the tradition of white bread sauces to accompany roasts and poultry has survived, consisting of onions, milk, bread crumbs and spices such as allspice or nutmeg,
Bay leaves, and pepper. Leftover sauce is also a great base for cream soups. Salade lyonnaise is a mouth watering French salad consisting of green salad (preferably frisée, but other kinds of green salads are fine, too) with crunchy bread croutons, crispy bacon, a mustard vinaigrette and poached egg.
And if you add parmesan shavings and replace the vinegar with lemon juice you get a Caesar salad. These Apulian bread balls with cheese are absolutely gorgeous, and nobody makes them like my neighbour Dora from whom I got this recipe. Her secret is to use generous amounts of grated cheese.
Slices of stale bread can be layered with vegetables and other ingredients of your choice, moistened with a little broth or milk and gratinated with cheese – ready is a superbe and inexpensive meal. Brokkoli and bacon are just one example, feel free to improvise according to your taste and supplies!
French toast (also the Poor Knights of Windsor) is well known: Soak slices of stale bread in eggs beaten with milk, fry them in butter in a pan and dust them with sugar and cinnamon. You can also prepare savoury French toasts by adding grated parmesan cheese to the milk
And egg, serving them with fresh herbs instead of sugar. Pappa al pomodoro is an easy Tuscan bread sop prepared with tomato sauce, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and basil. It can be served hot or cold. Bread soups made from soaked bread are traditionally found wherever bread is eaten.
For this video I have picked out a recipe from the Alpine region: Toast old bread with bacon and diced onions in butter, pour broth (and, in some recipes, beer) and simmer for a few minutes until the bread is very soft, whisk well until smooth, add cream and season with pepper.
If stale bread is not yet entirely hard and you can still cut it into thin slices, you can toast these in the oven with a little olive oil and sprinkled with some salt (and whatever other spice or herb you like) to make crispy bread chips.
You can also add old bread to your bread dough and bake tasty fresh bread rolls. Vegetables such as zucchini, eggplants, peppers, etc. can be stuffed with a mixture of bread crumbs, their own pulp, garlic, olive oil, grated cheese and herbs and baked in the oven.
The preparation of the famous Andalusian vegetable soup gazpacho begins with soaking stale bread, to which mediterranean summer vegetables, olive oil and a dash of vinegar are added and pounded in a mortar or pureed with a blender. Gazpacho is served cold.
French onion soup is topped with a slice of bread, which can be stale or not, covered with cheese and quickly gratinated in the oven, thus creating a hearty and warming winter meal. Breadcrumbs are perhaps the easiest way to use stale bread, by grating it finely.
These can be used in many ways, for example to thicken sauces or, as in this recipe, to bread fish, meat or vegetables. To do this, dip the food morsels (fish in this case) in flour, dip in beaten egg, then roll in breadcrumbs and finally fry them in fat.
From the many bread puddings around the world, I have chosen the Egyptian Umm Ali (“Ali’s mother”). To prepare Umm Ali, cut stale bread or puff pastry into small pieces, mix with pistachios (usually chopped, but I love the crunch of whole nuts in food), raisins and sugar, cover
With milk, sprinkle with cinnamon and bake in the oven until the surface is golden brown.