Not only recovered recipes, with stale bread, but real symbolic dishes of Italian cuisine plus other modern interpretations.
The bread, even the smell alone makes you hungry.
Fragrant and welcoming makes you want to buy them by the kilos and often, in fact, you buy too much! In the past it was practically impossible to advance, considered a precious and versatile ingredient so much so that even stale bread was reused to prepare genuine dishes for the whole family, from appetizers to desserts.
'' Woe to throwing away the stale bread! "
Mothers and grandmothers used to roll up their sleeves to knead that mixture of water and flour that had to be enough for several days. Now bread is easy to buy, just go to the baker and choose from the floured shelves. So it happens to buy in excess and leave it there to dry sadly in the paper bag. Yet the history of Italian cuisine has its roots right on simpler traditions, like that of stale bread, reused from north to south, all along the boot, in exquisite regional recipes from passatelli to anolini, from panzanella to ribollita, from frisella to pancotto or more modern interpretations.
So if you have overdone the purchase, you have two alternatives: freeze it when still fresh and then remove it from the freezer a few hours before use, or try one of these 10 recipes.
Pappa al pomodoro for 4 people
Start by browning a clove of garlic and a chopped onion in a nice drizzle of oil, then remove the garlic and add about 500 g of peeled and blended tomatoes, then bring to a boil, add a sprig of chopped basil and it is cooked slowly for about ten minutes. The stale bread is cut into small pieces and added to the sauce, stirring. As soon as the bread is well soaked, add about a liter of boiling broth, preferably meat. At this point add salt and pepper and simmer for 15 minutes. At the end it turns off and rests for an hour, stirring often to mix the ingredients. It is served with a drizzle of good oil and fresh basil leaves.
Green bread dumplings for 4 people
Break 200 g of stale bread and soak in 125 g of milk. 250 g of ribs are boiled (only the most tender green part) then drain, squeeze and blend with the bread, which is also well squeezed. Incorporate an egg, salt and breadcrumbs if necessary (it must be a malleable dough). The dough is worked on a floured surface, divided into 4 pieces, each rolled up with the hands forming long loaves as big as a finger and cut into pieces of a couple of centimeters. At this point, boil the gnocchi in salted water for 5 'and, after having drained them, season to taste with tomato sauce, pesto or melted butter and sage.
Pennette with bread and anchovies for 4 people
Cut 50 g of stale Apulian bread into cubes and season with oil, the juice of half a lemon, salt, pepper, a tablespoon of chopped chives and marjoram, then bake at 160 ° C for about ten minutes, just time to toast them. The pasta is boiled and in the meantime 150 g of boned anchovies are browned in a drizzle of oil for a couple of minutes, wet with a ladle of cooking water and season with chopped parsley. Drain the pasta, dip into the anchovies, mix and serve with the toasted bread cubes.
Apulian bread for 4 people
4 beautiful slices of stale homemade bread are placed on a tray, rubbed with a clove of garlic then wet with a little water to soften them. They are sprinkled with abundant tomato pulp, chopped basil, oregano, salt, pepper and a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Soft peach bread cake for 6 people
150 g of stale bread are soaked in a solution with 100 g of milk and the same amount of water, in the meantime, 2 eggs are whipped with 80 g of sugar, add the squeezed bread, 500 g of peaches, peeled and chopped and thirty of grapes. The mixture is flavored with a little grated lemon zest and rum to taste. Sprinkle a pan with butter, breadcrumbs and sugar and after having poured the mixture into it, bake at 180 ° C for 30 '. It is served with powdered sugar and other fruit to taste.
Drunken bread pancakes for 6 people
About 300 g of stale bread are soaked, covered with white wine. Mix 3 eggs, 70 g of sugar and a pinch of salt in a bowl, then add the squeezed bread and mix. The mixture is flavored with grated orange and lemon zest and a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. At this point the flour is added, starting from 30 g and stopping as soon as the dough is quite thick, then dipped in small spoonfuls into boiling seed oil. Drain the pancakes obtained on kitchen paper and sprinkle with powdered sugar. If desired, you can sprinkle them with a drizzle of honey.
Valle d'Aosta country soup for 4 people
300 g of stale bread are cut into large slices, then 200 g of Aosta Valley cheeses, such as Fontina and toma, are sliced. After placing a few slices of bread on the bottom of a baking dish, cover with a part of sliced cheese and a nice sprinkling of grated parmesan. Continue with another layer of bread, cheese and parmesan, for a richer pan you can make a third layer. At this point it is bathed in boiling broth of meat, but also vegetable broth and bake at 180 ° C for about twenty minutes. It is served steaming and racy.
Mondeghili for 4-6 people
It starts by soaking about 90 g of stale bread in 160 g of milk, then cut a nice piece of white rib of beef, already boiled, and mince it with a generous hectogram of mortadella and a tuft of parsley. Mix the mixture with 2 eggs, 50 g of grated parmesan, salt, pepper and the soaked and squeezed bread. About twenty lightly flattened meatballs are modeled, passed in beaten egg then in breadcrumbs, then fry in butter, turning them often until golden brown.
Ghiotta stewed cod for 6 people
The cod fillets, roughly 1 kg already desalted, soaked and boned, are cut into pieces, floured and then fried in a veil of boiling oil for a couple of minutes on each side. In the meantime, brown 50 g of crumbled stale bread in another pan with a tablespoon of oil and a clove of garlic for 2 minutes, so that it roasts but does not burn. The cod fillets are transferred to a pan greased with oil, 3 beautiful large tomatoes cut into fillets, 100 g of black olives, a tablespoon of desalted capers, the toasted breadcrumbs and seasoned with a drizzle of oil. It is baked in the oven at 180 ° C for about ten minutes, then it is taken out of the oven.
Tyrolean dumplings for 4-6 people
Beat 3 eggs with 250 g of milk. Cut 250 g of stale bread into cubes and mix with the eggs. At this point add 150 g of speck and 50 g of minced salami, a few strands of chopped chives, a sprig of chopped parsley, salt and nutmeg. It blends well and the mixture is left to flavor for one hour at room temperature. The flour is added to the mixture, mixing carefully then 18 balls (dumplings) are formed and lightly floured. They are cooked in a good boiling meat broth for 15-20 minutes, then served in broth, dry or fried in abundant butter.
