Grain
Bread
Also called stale bread, country loaf, baguette, white bread, sourdough
Baked wheat dough used as a loaf, a crumb and a thickener. Day-old bread is an ingredient, not a failure: ribollita, gazpacho, fatteh and onion soup want stale crumb that drinks liquid without turning to paste. This is the generic loaf — not pita.
Origin
Wherever wheat was milled. Use what is local: baguette for onion soup, country crumb for ribollita, a white slice for a bifana. Do not hunt one 'correct' loaf unless the dish names it.
Flavour
Yeasty when fresh, nutty when toasted, almost bland in the centre — it carries sauce and stock. Sourdough adds acid; cheap white adds softness.
How it is made
Flour, water, salt and usually yeast, baked. For cooking you care about dryness: yesterday's loaf fries and soaks on your terms.
How to use it
Cube and fry for soup; soak and mash for ají de gallina; toast for fatteh. Gazpacho wants stale crumb or the blender turns it gluey. Sandwich a bifana on something that can take gravy. Dry supermarket slices in a low oven for crumbs. Heels are the better half of the loaf for cooking.
Storage
Bench a day or two. Freeze slices if you will not finish the loaf. The fridge stales it in a way the freezer does not.
Recipes using it
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