"Nothing beats a warm loaf of bread, fresh out of the oven. Unfortunately, after that same bread has sat out on the counter for a day or two, it loses much of its charm. But you don't need to throw out the stale end of the loaf. Instead, bypass the garbage bin and toss it right into your soup pot. Stale bread is actually one of the best ingredients for thickening homemade soup, and there are a few different ways that you can do it."
"One method is to blitz the stale bread into breadcrumbs and stir those into your soup pot. Or, if you're making a blended soup, try just tossing some hunks of bread in and letting them soak in the broth for a while before puréeing. Simmering in the warm liquid will soften the bread enough that it totally disintegrates when you hit it with the immersion blender. There are even a few soups that are traditionally built around being thickened with bread."
"Ribollita is the perfect way to use up stale bread, as it's an Italian soup in which pieces of bread can simply be tossed into the pot and allowed to simmer until they break down and turn the soup thick and hearty. Bread is also the secret thickening ingredient in gazpacho, generally soaked in water and then wrung out before it is puréed with the fresh vegetables."
Stale bread is an effective and economical thickener for homemade soups. Bread can be blitzed into breadcrumbs and stirred into a soup pot to add body. For blended soups, chunks of stale bread can soak in hot broth and then purée to fully integrate and thicken the liquid. Simmering softens the bread so it disintegrates with an immersion blender, creating a creamy texture. Traditional soups such as ribollita incorporate torn bread pieces that break down during simmering, and gazpacho uses soaked and wrung bread puréed with vegetables. Any non-moldy stale bread works, though strong-flavored loaves affect final taste, and using stale bread reduces food waste.
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