Stale bread, do not consider it a waste. When you happen not to consume all the bread that is destined, by its very nature, to lose its moisture and therefore become dry what to do with it? No problem, that bread which is no longer soft is not a waste, but it is "the beginning of a variety of more or less complex preparations that do not disfigure minimally with fine cuts of meat and fish on our tables", explains chef Sergio Maria Teutonico signs a book that plays with the irony of the title - "I ate the Christmas tree. Small recipe for stale bread" (storm publisher) - to address the issue of food waste, which condemns without appeal, proposing a collection of recipes for making bread and using it in his second life, from stale bread.
The inspiration for this project comes with the request to make an edible Christmas tree that the Teutonic chef's imagination translates into a creation made with different types of bread in order to allow, at the end of the exhibition, to be able to eat it, without wasting nothing of what was produced. Thus was born a publication that focuses on bread and its recipes, even in the different regional declinations, with the desire to highlight that we can think that "bread is only a mixture of flour, water, salt and yeast, which it is not entirely wrong, but it is certainly limited ". Thus, a range of about thirty recipes starts, from appetizers to desserts: there is space for stuffed vegetables, soups, omelettes and meatballs that recall the dishes of the rural tradition in which parsimony was a value, as well as a necessity. The choice of the author is not to indicate the doses, to allow each personal digressions, and to use simple language to be able to tell even to the little ones, "ensuring that they never take the usual abundance on our tables for granted" . Some example of a recipe?
GNOCCHI DI PANE E SPECK . The ingredients are almost all at hand: butter, flour (or cornstarch), grated Grana Padano cheese, stale bread, salt, sage, speck and egg. Soften the bread in the milk, squeeze it and purée it. Add the egg and the minced speck to the knife, season with salt and nutmeg. Mix well and adjust the consistency with flour (or even cornflour) and breadcrumbs. Now form some cylinders of the thickness of a thumb and make some dumplings that have to be passed into the flour to keep them from sticking. Last step: cook in plenty of salted water and season with butter, sage and grated cheese.
Another recipe is that of the FRITTELLINE DI MELANZANA . Ingredients: garlic, marjoram, aubergine, extra virgin olive oil, stale bread, spicy provola, grated orange peel and egg. Stir-fry the aubergines in coarse pieces. Once cooked and removed from the heat, add the crumbled stale bread with your hands. Add the grated orange zest and the chopped garlic. Mix well and add the chopped provolone and marjoram together. Finally add the egg to adjust the consistency. Make some meatballs using a spoon and fry in plenty of oil.
PANZANELLA is also simple. In this case serve basil, cucumber, onion, extra virgin olive oil, stale bread, pepper, ripe tomatoes and salt. Soften the bread in water, squeeze it and crumble it into a bowl. Chop the onion and basil. Cut the peeled tomatoes and cucumbers into small pieces. Add all the vegetables to the bread and season with oil, vinegar, pepper and salt. Let it flavor for a few hours before serving.
BREAD FRIES. Ingredients: butter, jam to your taste, flour, whole milk, extra virgin olive oil, stale bread, salt, eggs, sugar. Cut the bread into slices, all the same size. Spread the jam on one side and pair it like a sandwich. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar and a pinch of salt. Pass the bread in the flour and then in the egg and sugar mixture. Fry in plenty of hot oil.
