"We don't think of bread as an ingredient," says Rick Easton, baker and co-owner of Bread and Salt in Jersey City. Often, bread is an accompaniment to the main dish or a nibble before a meal or a fetishsized object on social media. But what about bread as a building block in a dish?
A quote by cookbook author Paula Wolfert has stuck with Easton — "Letting bread go stale is one of the slowest forms of cooking in the world." That inspired him when he was developing his book, Bread and How to Eat It, which he co-wrote with Melissa McCart.
One recipe that relies on bread as an ingredient is friselle, a staple in Southern Italy. A dried bread product that can be eaten in a number of ways, it's traditionally made with a low hydration dough. Twice-baked, it's often shaped into small rounds. The lore is that sailors would take friselle on journeys and rehydrate it with seawater. In the general category of rusks, friselle makes a great landing pad for salads, soups, beans, or lentils. "It's a bread that's designed to be old," Easton says.
An irregular loaf can be used in pieces for croutons and in meatballs made with bread. Torn and smashed, it can be used in a variety of preparations.
Pancotto al pomodoro is a Tuscan dish using tomato and bread that becomes a porridge. Photo by Johnny Fogg
Pancotto al pomodoro
Most Americans might be more familiar—in name at least—with the Tuscan variant of this dish known as pappa al pomodoro. Pancotto al pomodoro is pretty much the same, although the locals in Tuscany use their infamous unsalted bread. Versions are found all over Italy, as bread and tomatoes are one of life’s most perfect 95 pairings. In winter, this can be made with top-quality canned tomatoes, but I like it best with fresh tomatoes.
Ingredients
- salt
- 5 pounds fresh ripe tomatoes Olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
- 1 small hot red chile pepper (fresh or dried), stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced crosswise
- 1 1/4–1 1/2 cups (200–250 grams) stale bread, crusts and all, torn into bite-size pieces
- A few fresh basil leaves
Instructions
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Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt it generously. Fill a large bowl with water and ice cubes.
Use a sharp knife to score a shallow X at the bottom of each tomato. Working in batches, drop them into the boiling water. After a minute or two, use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the ice water bath to cool them quickly. Reserve the cooking water. Drain the tomatoes, then discard their loosened skins, seedy gel, and cores. Cut or tear into large chunks, over a bowl to catch the juices. -
Coat a deep skillet with some oil, add the garlic and the hot pepper, and start the heat on low. Once the garlic begins to sizzle, toss in the pieces of bread, stirring to coat.
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Add the chunks of tomatoes plus any accumulated juices. Season with salt and stir. Increase to a simmer, cooking for 10 to 20 minutes, until the bread has completely softened and become custardy, stirring and breaking up the pieces as you go. Taste for salt and add, as needed. Tear the basil leaves, letting them fall into the pan, and remove from the heat.
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Serve in shallow bowls with a drizzle of oil.
"We don't think of bread as an ingredient," says Rick Easton, baker and co-owner of Bread and Salt. Photo by Johnny Fogg.
The inspiration for Eaton's book, Bread and How to Eat It, co-authored byMelissa McCart, comes from his experience with customers who were willing to pay $6 for toast but balked at the cost of a $10 loaf.
Bread and How to Eat It offers up ways to use a loaf that go beyond toast. Photo courtesy of Knopf.