Iceberg to Arugula

I’m a busy person, so I don’t always have as much time as I’d like to cook. To help fill in the gaps, I always have some preprepared items on hand to help me pull together quick meals on busy weekday evenings.  

However, there are some things that no matter how hard I try, I cannot find a premade substitute that will float my boat. When that happens, I just carve out the time to make the item in question myself. One of those items that I’m just weirdly picky about?

Croutons.

Yep, you read me right…. croutons…dried out bread nuggets.

I have yet to find a bagged crouton that doesn’t shatter into a million dry powdery pieces leaving me with a mouthful of sawdust nuanced with “natural and artificial flavors.”

Mouthwatering eh?? 

So…I make my own deeply tanned, oil crisped beauties to use on soups or salads, or on their own as a party snack.

My basic recipe is open to lots of variation….. so have fun and add flavors you like. Essentially it involves tossing 1-2 day old bread with flavor infused oil and dressing with cheese, herbs or whatever else makes you smile.

When selecting bread, be sure to get a good quality loaf of “artisan style” thick crusty bread with an open chewy interior. Avoid fine textured or soft loaves or you’ll end up with sawdust mouth.

Though croutons typically start as a way to salvage day old bread, I sometimes use fresh (shhhhhh) and dry it out in the oven.

Lightly grease a cookie sheet and preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the whole loaf into cubes of desired size. I usually do 1 inch cubes or less. You should have about 4-6 cups of cubes. Place in a bowl.

In a small saucepan add 1/2 to 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil. Place over low heat until warm. Add finely chopped fresh herbs or crumbled dry ones (rosemary, thyme, marjoram and oregano work particularly well). While the oil continues to warm, the flavors of the herbs will release and permeate the oil (it’s kind of like steeping tea). I generally let the oil infuse for at least 30 minutes.

I like garlic in my croutons and if I want to add it this is where I do it. Early on, I tried various ways of getting garlic in and it just never ended well. So I found adding 1-2 coarsely chopped cloves to the warmed olive oil works pretty well. But word of caution here, overcooked or burnt garlic is pretty gnarly stuff, so make sure your oil is not so hot that the garlic browns.

So to sum up: Don’t ever burn garlic….ever….it’s bad….really.

Once the oil is adequately infused, drizzle it over the bread cubes and toss until bread is mildly to moderately coated. Place bread cubes on the greased cookie sheet in a single layer. I like to finish with a grating of fresh cheese. It bakes onto the croutons, but also onto the pan which makes the flavor deeper and more pronounced. In itself, this can add something great to the final dish.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, pull pan out of the oven and flip croutons over with a spatula for even browning. (The pan side of the croutons is where the browning occurs.) You can continue baking until the croutons are totally crisp (another 20 minutes) or take them out when the outside is crisp but the inside is still tender and chewy (another 10 minutes or so).

I like to use the tender chewy ones in salads to get a sort of Panzanella effect.

Keep in an airtight container. For best flavor, plan to use them up within a week…..if they last that long.