When Your Bread's As Stale As Your Jokes
Crostini is the answer to the question "what can I do with this two day old baguette besides throw it out or beat my dog?"
Having lost it's initial freshness, but not yet possessing the brittle dryness of a giant baguette-shaped-bread crumb, two day old baguette is in culinary limbo. It's just sitting there in the pantry, a dead loaf walking. awaiting it's final destiny, being pulverized to smithereens [always wanted to use that word] as breadcrumbs.
I, being an outside the breadbox thinking young lad, decided to give it a second chance [recidivism is low in our pantry] and offered to commute its sentence if it agreed to take a little heat.
...
I can't keep this up. Allegory over!
Long story short: Two day old baguette makes perfect toast!
Ingredients
Makes 2ish servings
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Half a baguette, two days old.
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4 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
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1 garlic clove, peeled
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Kosher salt
Recipe
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Put a piece of foil on a half sheet pan [or whole, if that's your thing]. This is my fave. Place your oven rack in the highest position that gets the bread closest to the heat without touching it.
Yeah, if you click that and buy it I make money. -
Cut the two day old baguette into 1/2 inch thick pieces and arrange them in one layer in the foil-lined sheet pan.
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Glug some extra virgin olive oil onto the bread.
Try to do it evenly but don't stress if it's not. This is the toughest step if you're culinarily OCD-ish like me... but just trust that the heat and capillary action will help the oil equilibrate in the bread.* Resist the urge to get an aerosolizer... Single-function tools have no place in your kitchen.
*complete fabrication. -
Broil that slicked up two day old bread until it's good and toasted. Rub the peeled garlic clove on the toasted crostini. Sprinkle that oily, garlicky bready goodness with salt.
The toasted, hardened surface of the crostini acts as a grater of sorts. It always amazes me how little the clove is after rubbing it on all the slices.