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.
Serves [2]
Ingredients
100g dry bread
100g boiled water
100g ’00’ flour
Method
Blend your dry bread 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
