Holy Week is approaching and, with it, comes a typical recipe for these dates: torrijas. This tasty sweet has bread as the main ingredient, but it is not the only preparation in which you can take advantage of the stale bread you have at home.
If you have leftover bread from one day to the next, don’t throw it away, because you can make many useful recipes with it. From preparing breadcrumbs with which to bread steaks or cachopo, to making toasts or paninis, to garlic soup or Castilian soup.
The most popular recipe to take advantage of stale bread is to make breadcrumbs with which to coat fillets, flamenquines or cachopos. To do this, just cut the bread into pieces that you then have to crush with the help of a food processor or a food processor. Crush the bread until you get the thickness you want and that’s it. You can add flavor to your breadcrumbs by adding a little chopped parsley.
Another very simple idea is to make paninis or toasts with the bread. By adding ingredients on top you will obtain a tender result in contrast to the crunch of the baked bread. Cut the bread into slices and spread with tomato sauce.
Then, put the toppings that you like the most on top: cheese, cooked or Iberian ham, cured meat, minced meat, mushrooms, onion… Next, place your toast or panini in the oven for about 10 minutes at 180º so that the cheese melts and the bread acquires a crispy texture.
A somewhat more laborious preparation than the previous ones, although no less simple, are canederli alla Tyrolese, a typical recipe from northern Italy. Start by sautéing chopped onion with speck, ham or bacon in a frying pan and then set aside.
In a bowl, chop the stale bread and mix it with milk to soak and soften it. Then, add two beaten eggs and stir well. Add aromatic herbs such as parsley and chives and add the speck – or, failing that, the ham or bacon – with the onion and mix everything together until you obtain a uniform dough.
The next step is to form the mixture into balls similar to meatballs, which you then have to boil in salted water for 15 minutes. To finish, serve them with melted butter and grated cheese.
And from an Italian recipe we move on to another very Castilian one: garlic soups. In a large pot with oil, fry some peeled garlic along with chorizo ??and paprika. Add white wine and, once it has reduced, add water or broth and salt to taste and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Finally, add the stale bread and let it soften. The last step will be to add some eggs to the soup, which we will let curdle for about three minutes.
