Day-old bread is not a failure, it is an invitation. A good deal of Mediterranean cooking exists precisely because someone had half a loaf going firm and no intention of wasting it.
First, try reviving it
Before you write a loaf off as leftovers, check whether it is merely firm. Firmness is caused by starch recrystallising, and heat reverses it temporarily:
- Splash a little water over the crust — damp, not wet.
- Straight onto the shelf of a 200 °C oven for 5–10 minutes.
- Cool for five minutes, then cut.
If it comes back, eat it that day; a revived loaf firms up again faster than it did the first time. If it does not come back, it is ready for the list below — and several of these dishes are actually better with bread that has dried out, because dry bread absorbs without collapsing.
Nine things to do with the end of a loaf
- Panzanella. Tear the bread into rough chunks, toss with very ripe tomatoes, good olive oil, a splash of red wine vinegar, red onion and basil. Leave it half an hour so the bread drinks the tomato juice. The Tuscan answer to a stale loaf, and better than it has any right to be.
- Bruschetta. Grill or griddle thick slices, rub the hot surface with a cut garlic clove, pour over olive oil, and top generously — tomatoes, white beans, roast peppers, anything.
- Ribollita. The Tuscan bread-and-bean soup that is reheated the next day, which is what its name means. Cannellini beans, cavolo nero, tomato, and enough torn bread to make it almost solid.
- Migas. Spanish, and a proper breakfast. Fry cubes of bread in olive oil with garlic and smoked paprika until crisp, and serve with an egg, or chorizo, or both.
- Breadcrumbs. Blitz, spread on a tray, dry in a low oven, and keep in a jar — or freeze them in a bag and use from frozen. Endlessly useful for coating, topping and thickening.
- Pangrattato. Coarse breadcrumbs fried in olive oil with garlic, chilli, lemon zest and anchovy, scattered over pasta or greens. Known in Italy as poor man’s parmesan, and a genuine improvement on the rich man’s version for some dishes.
- Croutons. Cubes tossed in oil and roasted until golden. The difference between these and the shop version is roughly the difference between coffee and instant.
- Eggy bread or pain perdu. Literally “lost bread”. Soak slices in beaten egg and milk and fry in butter — savoury with bacon, or sweet with sugar and cinnamon.
- Summer pudding or bread sauce. Two British dishes built on the same idea — stale white bread as a structure for something else, either soaked in berry juice or simmered with milk, onion and cloves.
Five of these — panzanella, bruschetta, ribollita, migas and breadcrumbs — are printed in the “Nothing wasted” page of Breads of the Mediterranean, the recipe book that comes with every Melipsa set.
Keeping bread for leftovers on purpose
If you know a loaf is heading this way, help it along properly rather than leaving it in a bag to go soft and musty. Cut it into cubes or slices, spread them on a tray, and dry them out in a very low oven or simply on the worktop for a day. Dry bread keeps for weeks in a jar. Damp bread grows mould in three days.
When to stop
One firm rule: if there is visible mould, the loaf goes in the bin — all of it. Bread is soft and moist enough that the visible spot is only the part you can see; the network is already through the surrounding crumb. Cutting round it is not safe, however small the patch, and however good the bread was.