It was two simple dishes, one which I cooked myself and another which was eaten in a restaurant, which taught me that breadcrumbs are something which we should never take for granted.
The dish I cooked was Deborah Madison's fine pasta dish of noodles with florets of broccoli and cauliflower, with a mustard butter and buttery crumbs.
It is a good pasta dish, but what counts in it, more than the mustard butter mixed with shallots, parsley, vinegar, garlic (vital), good cauliflower and broccoli which is blanched (fundamental), and pasta which is just al dente (essential), is the crumbs.
The crumbs transform the texture of the dish completely, their addition at the last minute - after the various ingredients are combined - set you a crunchy foil to the supple pasta and the toothsome vegetables, and give an edge and counterpoint to the flavours of the main players. Without the crumbs the dish would be good. With the crumbs, it is a sure-fire sensation.
And then, a few years ago, I had the chance to see the brilliant Kenmare chef, Maura Foley, making a dish of cod with a cheese sauce and a breadcrumb topping.
And there seemed to be nothing to it, really: a fine piece of Castletownbere cod seared in a dry pan, a cheese bechamel, quite thick and purposeful, and a mass of buttery breadcrumbs, scattered on top of the cod and the sauce, and then baked.
And it was a sensation, nothing less, the very simplest foods together breeding that alchemy which every food lover seeks.
So, I began to wonder about breadcrumbs. It sounds like a pretty crazy - not to mention a pretty sad - thing to do, I know, but sometimes it is those little culinary details which hold the key to the success of a dish, transforming it from the special into the sublime.
You make breadcrumbs using day-old white bread, (but not sliced pan, which does not have the correct texture). The bread is torn apart and placed in a food processor, which steadily whirls it into a myriad of crumbs, but don't overprocess, or you will have dust.
Then, if the recipe calls for it, the crumbs are slowly mixed in butter or oil. But care should be taken not to make the crumbs too moist, because it would interfere with the other flavours in the dish.
Italian cooking, with its emphasis on restraint and parsimony, and its endless attempts to transform the straightforward into the sublime, makes extensive use of breadcrumbs, to provide contrast and, of course, to use up crusts and crumbs of old bread. The Sicilians are perhaps best known for their parsimonious cuisine, and the care they take over using up every crumb of bread was legendary, best exemplified by the belief that anyone who let a breadcrumb fall on the floor would be punished in the hereafter by having to gather it up with their eyelashes.
As Mary Taylor Simetti writes in her book, Sicilian Cooking: "This pious frugality no doubt helps to explain the importance of breadcrumbs in Sicilian cooking. Breadcrumbs were commonly used to thicken sauces in both Roman and Renaissance recipes, and this may be where the Sicilian habit of sprinkling them over pasta originated . . ." This first recipe comes from Taylor Simetti's book, and is a delicious example of frugal cooking which is quite special.
Pasta with Anchovies and Breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups dried breadcrumbs
1/3 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 cup warm water
1 1/2 lb spaghetti
10-12 anchovy fillets
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped Fresh parsley
Coat the bottom of a heavy skillet with one tablespoon of olive oil. Add the breadcrumbs and toast them over a low flame, stirring constantly, until they are a rich, golden brown. Put them in a small serving bowl and set aside.
Put one-third of a cup of olive oil in a skillet, add the garlic cloves, slightly crushed but still of a piece. Saute the garlic until it begins to colour, then discard. Add the tomato extract and the water to the hot oil, stirring until the extract is completely dissolved. Simmer over very low heat for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling water, only lightly salted since both the tomato extract and the anchovies are very salty.
In a separate pan or a double boiler (I always use a small double-handled frying pan that will sit on top of my spaghetti pot), cook the anchovies with one teaspoon of olive oil, stirring them until they dissolve into a cream. This must be done over steam and not over the direct flame, lest the anchovies turn bitter. Add the anchovies to the tomato sauce and simmer two to three minutes longer.
Drain the spaghetti when cooked al dente, reserving a cup of the cooking water. (This is always a wise precaution when preparing pasta with a very concentrated sauce or with breadcrumbs - a few tablespoons of the reserved liquid will correct any eventual dryness). Place the spaghetti in a large bowl, add the sauce, and mix thoroughly, pouring in a little of the reserved liquid if necessary. Sprinkle with some of the breadcrumbs and the parsley. Pass the remaining breadcrumbs on the side.
Baked Fennel with Parsley and Breadcrumbs
Here is a very simple example of using crumbs with vegetables, which showcases their effect. Crumbs are, of course, delicious also in stuffed tomatoes, and they can also be pressed into artichokes and then baked. While this is a perfect vegetable accompaniment for a roast or some chicken (fennel loves chicken), I like to serve it as a starter, for the aniseed flavour acts as a provocation to the appetite. Such veritable simplicity has to be the work of an Italian, and it is: Franco Taruschio of The Walnut Tree restaurant in Abergavenny.
Serves four
4 fennel bulbs
60g/2oz fresh white breadcrumbs
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Cut the fennel bulbs in half and remove the tough outer leaves. Blanch the pieces in boiling water for 10 minutes.
Mix together the fresh breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Open the fennel leaves and stuff the breadcrumb mixture between the leaves. Place the fennel in a gratin dish, pour the olive oil over the fennel and bake in an oven set at 180C/350 F/Gas 4 for 12 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are golden.
Maura Foley's Cod in a Mornay Sauce with a Breadcrumb Topping
Maura Foley's recipe is a classic example of how to use crumbs to make a gratin dish, i.e. a dish with a crust. Gratins don't come better than this.
Gratin of Cod
4 thick fillets of cod
Half pint Mornay sauce (see below)
2oz chunky breadcrumbs with enough soft butter to moisten (approx 1 oz)
Seal the fish in a hot dry Tefal pan, then turn the fish skin-side up and cook for a few minutes. Coat with a dollop of mornay sauce and sprinkle liberally with buttered crumbs. Pop into a hot oven 250C for approximately six minutes. Served with chopped fresh herbs.
Mornay Sauce
1 oz flour
1 1/2 oz butter
half pint milk
half pint cream
Cracked black pepper and sea salt
2 oz Parmesan cheese
3 oz Hard cheddar cheese
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 dessertspoon English or Dijon mustard
Melt the butter. Stir in the flour, then beat in the milk and cream. Season and cook gently for 10 minutes. Add the grated cheeses, mustard and cayenne pepper.
Judith Olney's Grated Apple Loaf
And finally, a lovely, simple idea from the food writer Judith Olney. I first began to make this many years ago, and its successful simplicity never ceases to delight me.
500 g (1 lb) apples, quartered, cored, peeled, coarsely grated or passed through medium or fine blade of Mouli-julienne
About 75 g (2 1/2 oz) sugar (in all)
Pinch powdered cinnamon
125 g (4 oz) finely crumbled stale but not dried bread, without crusts
175 g (6 oz) butter
Mix the apples with 50 g (1 1/2 oz) sugar and the cinnamon. Mash the breadcrumbs, two or three tablespoons sugar, and 125 g (4 oz) softened butter together with a fork. Melt the remaining butter in a small heavy frying pan and pack the breadcrumb mixture against the bottom and sides with a fork to form an even shell. Fill with the apple mixture, packing with the fork, and cook over a low flame, covered, for about 15 minutes or until the edges of the breadcrumb casing begin to show brown.
Finish, uncovered, in the oven (375F/190C/Gas 5) for another 15 minutes. If the contents of the pan do not slide freely with gentle shaking, loosen the bottom with a spatula before unmoulding.