Stale bread pasta
In the UK, we throw away 25 million slices of bread a day. Here’s a magic trick for you to turn your old stale bread into pasta! Any type of bread works but my favourite is stale focaccia.
Ingredients: (serves 2)
- 100g dry bread
- 100g boiled water
- 100g ’00’ flour (or swap for plain flour)
Method:
- Tear your bread and then blend into breadcrumbs, the finer, the better. If not quite dry enough place in a warm oven until it’s hard.
- Place your breadcrumbs into a medium size bowl and carefully pour over the boiled water. Mix thoroughly to rehydrate the breadcrumbs.
- Add the flour to the breadcrumb mix and stir until it’s incorporated (it will look dry).
- Tip the mixture onto a clean work surface and knead for 5-7 minutes until a soft dough forms. Alternatively, you can pulse the mix in a food processor for several minutes, then knead on a work surface for a few more minutes.
- Cover the dough with a damp tea towel and rest let it rest for 10-30 minutes.
- Roll the dough with a rolling pin to the desired thickness (for tagliatelle you will want the thickness of a penny). You can cut the dough into small batches to make this more manageable. Use a little flour if you find it sticking. Alternatively, roll the dough through a pasta machine to setting 2 or 3.
- Cut the sheets of pasta in to 0.5cm strips. At this stage you can place the pasta into a sealable tub and freeze for future use. Simply cook the pasta straight from frozen when you want it.
- If using straightaway, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta for 2-3 minutes then strain. It will have a softer texture to regular pasta as it has no egg in it.
To serve:
Mix the pasta with any sauce or pesto you wish.
Recipe courtesy of Rowen Halstead for #FoodSavvy Norfolk & Suffolk