Burro e Alici

The thing is, I am not a butter eater.
In front of a loaf just out of the oven, I will reach for peppery olive oil and flaky salt. Butter can sit in my fridge, ignored, for months, until the baking hitch attacks.

But since our last trip to Rome – where I ate my weight in gluten and dairy – I have been using that packet of butter surprisingly often. It was either melted into a puddle, mingled with anchovies and used to season pasta. Or eased in thin yet un-spread layers over toasted bread, and covered with whole, plump anchovies only seconds before the first bite. It might partially be because of the desolate fridge we found upon our return – the butter, you guessed it, was one of the few things in there. Or else because anchovies are a beloved flavour in our house, and we never miss the occasion to fry some up. Whatever the reason, and as hazardous as this combination of flavours might sound to purists – fish with dairy? are you joking? – they are definitely a match made by a genius mind.

Rome

Panzanella

What do you do with stale bread? Do you throw it away, or perhaps freeze it? Maybe pulse it into breadcrumbs, or fry into fluffy French toast? Do you make croutons for soups and salads?

Do you feed it to your pet?

We live between Southfields and Wimbledon, in a green corner of South West London surrounded by parks and commons. We actually have a park within a 20-second-walking distance, a park that has a lake, too – populated by ducks, geese, strange pre-historiacal-looking black aquatic birds, and swans.

Every time I walk along the lake, I see people (often with children) throwing chunks of sliced, white, likely stale, packaged bread to the birds. The birds eat it and don't complain, probably thinking that such a barely edible thing is even worth fighting for against your peers.

Whenever I see this scene, I produce the following conclusions:

– Birds aren't picky;
– Some humans must not be picky either for thinking that stuff is bread;
– Said bread, when stale, is certainly not worth keeping or recycling;
– I have a very hard time allowing my loaf to get stale, and when I accidentally do, I can think of a thousand and one things to do with it;
– Birds must think I am a very bad person as I never take them food.

My absolutely favourite way to use stale bread is making a french toast of sorts. The second one, following shortly, is panzanella.

Postcards From An Easter Break in Argentario