Don’t Throw It Out!
Three great recipes to use up leftover food before it goes “bad” - plus how to make my Italian bread dipping spices
When we have a nice loaf of fresh-baked bread, either homemade or from the bakery, we like to eat it the rustic Italian way - with olive oil, sea salt and a blend of spices.
I lived in Italy for two years, and while I was there, I got hooked on a lot of authentic Italian flavors. Red wine, limoncello, true Neapolitan style pizza (Naples, where I lived, is the birthplace of pizza), fresh buffalo mozzarella, and bread with dipping spices. (And lots more!)
Dinner at an Italian restaurant in Italy is an experience like no other. Don’t expect to get out of there in less than three hours. Italy, like most southern European countries, practices a nap period in the afternoon or early evening. In Spain, it is called a Siesta. In Italy, they call it “Reposa.” Reposa is typically from 3 or 4 in the afternoon until about 6 in the evening. The restaurants start to open back up around 7 PM or so. In an Italian restaurant, you are seated and there are usually carafes of the house wine on the table. There is warm, fresh sliced bread for everyone, and little plates of spices with olive oil on top to dip the bread. Then they serve the antipasto, sort of like an appetizer. Then you get the primo, which is usually pasta or risotto. Then the secondo which is usually a meat or fish plate. Then the contorno, which was usually a salad or vegetable. Then the dolce, which was a dessert of some kind. This was accompanied with either a shot of espresso or cappuccino, and then, finally, the digestif - a strong and sweet liqueur believed to aid in digestion. Where I lived in Italy, the popular choice was Limoncello, served ice cold in frosted glasses. Like I said, the evening meal takes at least three hours in Italy. I would go out to dinner with a huge group of friends, and it was always a magical experience.
So here is my recipe for Italian bread dipping spices:
The above recipe has the salt mixed into the spices, but, since where we live tends to be pretty humid, I have started omitting the salt to the mixture. If that’s the case where you live, then mix up the spices sans salt, but… Don’t forget the salt!! We use a sea salt grinder to put coarse salt on top of the spices and then add the olive oil, but a pinch (or two) of table salt works just fine. One batch of the above proportions tends to last quite a while in our house. The tarragon and fennel really make it unique.
So, we often have some very good bread left over in our house that we don’t want to just throw away. When we have bread left over, I like to make a nice warm, sweet batch of bread pudding.
Here is my bread pudding recipe:
You can also add some fruit to this, blueberries or peaches - either works well. Some people will add in raisins. Do what you like!
Have some leftover spinach? Spinach comes in big bags and if you don’t use all of it, it tends to get a little wilty. I use spinach to make Indian Saag. It is pure comfort food. You can also use kale or turnip greens, to add to the spinach. Whatever greens you have a lot of, or a mixture of, can be used in the below recipe. I always say that my favorite genre of food is Indian food.
I was first introduced to Indian food in my freshman year of high school. I grew up in a small town in southern Illinois with a very strong German heritage. When I was a freshman, an Indian family moved to town to open a chain store of some sort. (Was it a Jiffy Lube? I don’t remember.) I became petty good friends with the freshman girl in the family, and I was invited to her home for dinner once. I was one of those skinny kids who could eat and eat and eat. And I ate anything. I was not a picky eater. Well, to that Indian mother, my appetite was the highest form of praise. I truly loved the food, though! All the spices! It was heaven. I was a regular dinner guest there throughout high school, and I have loved Indian food ever since.
Here is my recipe for Saag.
The above recipe uses fried cheese (paneer), but you can make it without the cheese and serve with oven-baked Tandoori chicken. I also serve with my own version of cilantro chutney and store-bought naan bread. Love this stuff.
Now onto bananas. You know the point when bananas start to get brown? They aren’t bad, per se. But no one really wants to eat them at that point. Throw them away? Don’t! Make some banana bread. Whenever I have about three to five bananas in this state, I whip up a quick batch of banana bread. It takes less than 20 minutes to whip this together, and it bakes for about an hour in loaf pans, less than that if you are doing muffins. The below recipe is for five bananas. If I only have three, I use two of those little unsweetened applesauce cups to add bulk. This is a pretty flexible recipe. You can add in ricotta to add in a sweet creaminess and make the banana bread a bit more decadent.
My kids just love to make this with me. It’s quick and easy to make, and they like to mash the bananas, crack the eggs, measure the sugar and flour. They love to grease the loaf pans with Crisco. And when it’s all mixed up, they love, love, love to lick the beater and the bowl.
Banana Bread, The Faithful Planner way:
Well, there ya go, folks! I plan on doing a post on Poshmark and resale soon, in my “don’t throw it out!” series.
As always…
Thank you for reading.