Food is the great universal topic. Go anywhere and talk with just about anyone and know that after pleasantries are exchanged, the conversation will almost always get around to food..eating it, buying it, preparing it. We love to talk about the parties we've attended, bar-b-ques we've hosted, dinners we've made, the desserts we've savored and the recipes we've mastered. I think we are lucky in that our conversations always come back to food in some capacity or another. It's always best when food is shared, both across the table and with our words. Come..let's share the bounty! Cooks talk!

Friday, September 12, 2008

What I would call Italian Migas

In a waste-not, want-not world learening to make the most of out our food dollar is a coming a dedicated art. It's one thing to know how to bake a wonderful sourdough boulle or know where you can buy a sublime pain de lavain in town, but it's another thing to know what to do with it when two days later you're looking hard at that pound of bread going stale before your eyes. "Is there justice in the world?" you might ask as you contemplate throwing it out. No, maybe not justice in the world's food court but you can turn it into tasty garlic croutons or make a very stylish and rustic antipasto dish, Italian Bread Salad.

Years ago I had a friend of the family who would fry up a couple onions and a handful of chopped up tortillas in oil before adding eggs to the pan. At first I couldn't quite understand why anyone would want to sully the beauty and purity of a scrambled egg. But, of course, I was the only boy in the house at the time and food dollars weren't as tight as they were in Maria's house. It was an age old device that I was being made privy to, using old starches and breadstuffs and such to stretch out a protein, but more, to make it more of a complete meal. My simplistic taste buds at the time may have thought that a side of buttered toast would be better for that scramble egg, but over time I have found many interesting rustic style recipes that have done the same and better than that simple pan of Migas. These days I can't even begin think of what soft tacos would be like without potatoes. Fried rice without a handful of leftover meats and somewhat wilted vegetables wouldn't be the same.

The ingredients to bread salad are simple, but I imagine like anything else you make you want to be sure that you start out with the best that you can afford. In many cases, that loaf you made two days ago and handful of basil you just picked from your windowsill garden should do the trick. A nice fruity olive oil and a tasty red wine vinegar are always good to have on hand, as well as a solid pepper grinder for that fresh ground black pepper taste. How much sea salt you use is up to you!

Healthy, imaginative, simple, refreshing. What more can you ask out of a salad?

Cooks Talk!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/health/nutrition/12recipehealth-1.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1221264056-+xKm0RTcYvUN6glfYYL/lg
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