A lot of Italian cuisines is based in frugality: using up everything and wasting nothing. Particularly in Tuscany, where traditional Tuscan bread, made without any salt, tends to harden and go stale very quickly, there are numerous recipes that are designed to use up that hardened bread.Â
So next time you find yourself with bread that's too hard to eat, don't despair! There's no need to throw it out and waste perfectly good food, and you can make something far more interesting and satisfying than just croutons with it.
-
-
Tuscan Vegetable Soup (Acquacotta maremmana)
The Spruce / Danette St. Onge
Hailing from the coastal Tuscan region of Maremma, this quick and simple Tuscan vegetable soup is a rich and satisfying soup, made with whatever vegetables are available (generally onions and Tuscan kale), plus tomatoes and stale slices of bread, which are rubbed with garlic and placed in the bottom of each bowl to soften in the broth.
-
Panzanella: Tuscan Bread Salad
The Spruce / Kyle Phillips
A panzanella is an extraordinarily refreshing bread salad that's perfect on a hot summer day; it makes for great picnic food, too. Quite versatile, and it can be made a day ahead.