#pan fried bread

This meal isn’t a complicated one; it’s a comforting one.

It’s the middle of Autumn in Australia currently, which means the evenings are cooling down, and all I seem to want is comfort food. That desire coupled with the notoriety of lazy Sunday’s, and this pan-fried bread recipe was the result! 

This isn’t tricky, 30 minutes kitchen time max and you’ve got a buttery, delicious, inviting dinner or snack. I try to live with the mantra that good ingredients and produce should speak for themselves, which rings true for this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 loaf of sourdough bread (preferably a day old)

4 tablespoons butter (I use vegan butter)

2 cloves of garlic, crushed not diced

salt and pepper 

truffle salt (optional)

BRUSCHETTA TOPPING:

Two tomatoes, diced small

Two red onions, finely diced

3/4 cup fresh basil, torn*

Balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper

*I don’t know how much merit there is to this, but for years I’ve seen chefs say cutting basil doesn’t release the flavour as well as just tearing it does. True or not, torn is rustic, and we aren’t aiming for Michelin star perfection, we’re aiming for flavour and comfort.

First, you’re going to want to start with some good bread. Any time I cook with bread, I use day old bread. It’s lost a little of its softness and crisps up beautifully, as well as drawing in all of the flavour. I got this amazing baguette from Quince Fromagerie on the Gold Coast! If you don’t have access to any boutique options at the moment, don’t fret. You can always get a great sour dough loaf in your local supermarket or baker.

Slice your bread about 1 inch thick, on a diagonal angle. Simple stuff. Next, we’re going to heat our butter on medium-high in a non stick pan, moving it around to ensure it doesn’t stick of burn. Burned butter sauce is a revelation when done correctly, but it’s not the end game here.

Once the butter is halfway melted, add your cloves of garlic to the pan. As we’ve broken these down, it’s going to allow the butter to mix with the flavours of the garlic, making a really delicious combination. So now we should have garlic browning, butter melting, it’s time to add the bread.

Depending on how frequently you check it, the bread should take 5-6 minutes to become a golden brown colour on the first side. Once you’re seeing that beautiful colour, flip in the pan, add a little salt to the freshly cooked side, and allow the bottom side to brown.

Continue to baste the bread with the butter in the pan, and make sure you’re moving the garlic cloves around every now and then, to allow for a good distribution. The flavour should be all through the dish, not only in some mouth fulls! Once the second side is browned, remove the bread from the pan and allow it to stand on a drying rack for a few minutes. While it’s cooling, sprinkle some more salt on your alternate side of the bread. I was in Banff this year and picked up and amazing truffle salt so I used that, but any salt accessible is totally fine.

While the bread is cooling, whip up your bruschetta mix (or ideally, do this at the beginning so your flavours have longer to settle with each other). Combine your tomatoes, basil and onions with about 3.5tsp of balsamic, and 3 tsp of extra virgin olive oil. This is where your tastebuds come into play big time. Is it enough vinegar for you? Not enough basil? Play around with the flavours until it is perfect for you - this is just what works for me. 

Crucial step: SALT YOUR BRUSCHETTA MIX. And pepper it too! Salt and tomatoes are a match made in heaven - the salt draws so much flavour out of the tomatoes, and mixes in the most divine way with the acidity. And we can’t have salt with out pepper, so make sure you pepper it for balance. Combine your mix, allow it to sit for a few minutes, et voila - it’s time to serve!

Other condiments such as cheeses (vegan or not), a great whole grain mustard or a chilli jam can also be absolutely delicious with this dish, but the bread itself is the star. It should be crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and oozing with the flavours it was cooked in. This is why resting it for a few minutes is imperative; we want it to be oozing with flavour, but butter dripping all over you isn’t a vibe. Let it settle into the bread. 

Oh, and you don’t have to make this just for bruschetta! It’s great with thyme and rosemary mushrooms, which I’ll be posting for you guys soon! 

Enjoy the process, have fun with the flavours, make it your own, and enjoy sometime for yourself you maybe haven’t had or done this way before. It’s all about the process, so don’t be afraid to be tasting, checking, learning.