A seasoned breadcrumbs recipe to make at home
As 2020 continues to be unrelenting, I try my best to find the rare crumb of solace where I can. For me, that often starts in the kitchen.
Like many, I fell into the world of bread-baking, tending carefully to my sourdough starter and waxing poetic about my boules to my boyfriend. But with just the two of us, it became hard to finish all the bread we were baking. So I started to make breadcrumbs.
It was a hobby that started out of necessity, as a way to use up stale bread, but quickly turned into an activity I looked forward to for its meditative qualities. If you’ve never dipped your hands into a bowl of freshly processed breadcrumbs and felt their gritty, sandy texture before, you’re seriously missing out.
To make them, I start by cutting a loaf of stale sourdough bread into large cubes and scattering them across a sheet tray. I bake them slowly until they’re fragrant and golden, perfuming my apartment with the comforting scent of toast. I then pulse the cubes in a food processor to transform them into crumbs.
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This is the first opportunity to elevate them. I like my crumbs large and scraggly, not fine and sandy like most store-bought varieties, so they can perfectly trap my favorite seasonings.
I fry the breadcrumbs in a Dutch oven with a generous amount of olive oil, five minced garlic cloves and a pinch of red pepper flakes. The bread sizzles and pops, absorbing the flavorful oil as it slowly darkens in color.
I transfer the crumbs to a bowl to cool, add freshly grated Parmesan cheese and massage with my hands. This step might sound a bit precious, but it breaks down the cheese in a way that leaves behind its savory flavor without compromising the breadcrumbs’ crunchy texture. I finish them with lemon zest, minced parsley, salt and pepper, and suddenly my stale loaf has a new life. It’s something crunchier, saltier and worth celebrating a second time.
Once I have freshly made breadcrumbs, I add them to pasta as a final crunchy topping, to salads in place of croutons and to roasted chicken for a pop of texture. The crumbs pack enough flavor and crunch to upgrade just about any meal. A simple dinner of pasta tossed in nothing more than olive oil makes the perfect blank canvas to let the breadcrumbs shine, and having them on hand just makes weeknight cooking more exciting.
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In fact, I’ve slowly started to plan my meals around what I can sprinkle them over.
The recipe makes a large batch, so you can store them in your fridge and use them as-is, or quickly heat them in a dry pan to restore crispness.
Once you make them, you might never go back to the boxed, seasoned variety again. Take your time, allow yourself to get lost in the process, and breathe some new life into your stale bread.
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