The Food Diaries

Eggy bread with cheddar

Take a couple of slices of thick country bread and spread a little English mustard on them. Place a large slice of mature cheddar in between and close into a sandwich. Whisk together 1 egg with 1/4 cup milk and dip in the sandwich on both sides till the liquid is well-absorbed. Melt a little butter in a pan and fry on both sides till nicely golden. Slice in half and serve.

Panzanella salad

(AKA what to do with a stale loaf of bread)

Tear up some leftover, stale ciabatta bread (1/2 loaf) into bite-sized pieces and place in a large, shallow salad bowl. Add 4 medium-sized tomatoes cut into wedges, 1/2 cucumber peeled and cut into chunks, and 1 small red onion, sliced thinly. Mix all together with your hands.

Whisk together 3tb olive oil with 1tb red wine vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the salad, cover and refrigerate (at least 1 hour but even overnight will work).

Stir again before serving. Drizzle a little more olive oil over top and sprinkle with 12 basil leaves, torn into pieces.

Garlic bread baked in parchment

Here’s another easy recipe from Jamie Oliver’s 30-minute meals. This one is quick to assemble and quite forgiving in terms of timings (the ‘water on the wrapping’ technique ensures the bread does not dry out) - which means you can afford to be a little forgetful about it once in the oven.

Slice a large ciabatta lengthwise, making sure you do not go all the way through the bottom crust! Now cut crosswise at 3 cm intervals - again, making sure you don’t go all the way through. Scrunch up a large piece of greaseproof paper under the tap and then lay flat on your counter. Place your ciabatta on the paper. Sprinkle a small bunch of finely chopped parsley all over the ciabatta (including under). Drizzle olive oil over (and inside) the ciabatta. Scatter 3-4 finely chopped garlic cloves between the slices. Season with sea salt and pepper. Seal up the package quite well and place in a hot oven (180c).

The ciabatta should be ready in about 20 minutes. You can probably delay taking it out of the oven for another 20 minutes by reducing the temperature down to 100c -keeping the bread warm and toasty.

Serves 6.

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Cinnamon French toast bites

Sometimes the best culinary ideas happen by accident. Say you have some leftover, stale, bite-sized squares of a country loaf (which you served on New Year’s with the cheese fondue) and you are about to throw them out, when you have the brainwave to add them to a mixture of an egg or two and a dash of milk, turning them around till the liquid is all absorbed. Add a dollop of butter into a pan, and when it just starts to sizzle add the the bread pieces and fry till golden on all sides. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon and sea salt and turn in the heat for another minute before piling onto a plate and serving with a drizzle of maple syrup.

It’s as if you’ve taken the best bit of the French toast (those crispy, golden edges) and made this breakfast all about that.