Panada - Venetian Style Bread Soup Recipe

Panada is a bread soup that has porridge like consistency, it is smooth and delicate in flavour, it is perfect for colder months as it is filling, and great when you want to use up and recycle all that stale bread you are not quite sure what to do with it.

It is similar to other types of soups, where stale bread is used as a main ingredient, like Soupe valpellinentze (Valle d'Aosta), Suppa cauta from the Italian island of Sardegna and Tuscan Pancotto (pancotto literally meaning cooked bread) just to mention a few.

In all honesty, this dish would not quite qualify to fall into a category of the most appealing of dishes at a first glance. The recipe for this soup only calls for three main ingredients, stale bread, broth or stock and extra virgin olive oil, and the success of this dish, as it is so simple, really lies in using exceptionally good quality ingredients.

It is hard to imagine that this incredibly humble soup that fed the poorest of the poor was created in today's one of the wealthiest regions of Italy, Veneto. This was not always the case as Veneto used to be one of the least prosperous regions of Italy where people had to be incredibly resourceful and creative with the ingredients they had. This is the dish that older generations, including my nona, remembers with both great fondness and melancholy, as it was prepared very often in their youth, during the World War II, but also during the years that followed.It was ideal for small children and the elderly, and it was traditionally also prepared during the Lent.

My nona shared with me that in Slovenian Istra, Panada (without the use of cheese) used to be a common site on the dinner tables. This would come as no surprise as this part of land used to be ruled by the Serenissima, ‘The most Serene Republic of Venice,’ which significantly shaped the gastronomic habits in this region.

Nowadays, Panada is one of those dishes that most of the younger generation have never heard of or even never tasted. This is an almost forgotten dish, in this day and age, it is a rarely cooked soup in homes, and most certainly not offered, or found on the menus in restaurants.

I am sharing here this much treasured family recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 400g stale bread (rustic type of loaf is particularly indicated)

• extra virgin olive oil, a generous drizzle or to taste, and some extra to serve

• 1.5 litre beef, chicken or vegetable broth (preferably homemade but you can use a really good quality store bought stock)

• sea salt

• black pepper

• grated Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese, to serve, optional (you can use any hard cheese you like)

Method

Thinly slice stale loaf of bread.

Place the slices in a pan in layers.

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Cover with beef, chicken or vegetable warm broth or stock, and drizzle generously with extra virgin olive oil.

Leave to stand for about 40 minutes and allow the bread to thoroughly absorb the liquid.

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Place the pan on a stove and cook on a very gentle heat for about 45 minutes stirring quite frequently but gently.

When is fully cooked you should end up with a smooth, creamy and velvety bread soup.

Taste and season with sea salt and black pepper.

Serve hot with grated Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese or other type of hard cheese of your preference, optional, and a drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

Just a thought

If you want to make this recipe intentionally, and not because of the left over bread, you can also buy a fresh rustic loaf from the shop and keep it out until it dries a bit, and then use it.

Meat Patties Istrian Style Recipe

These comforting, satisfying and sinfully delicious meat patties are a real crowd pleaser; they are crunchy on the outside, moist, tender and juicy on the inside.

They have a rustic appearance and are made with minced beef and pork combined with stale pieces of bread previously soaked and softened in milk, and fresh parsley, marjoram, onions, garlic, sea salt and black pepper are added to flavour and season the meat mixture which is then shaped into patties and shallow fried.

These meat patties can be served as a starter or as a main meal, great as a sandwich filler and brilliant to take on picnics.

This recipe represents one of the most popular family dishes in Slovenia, made and enjoyed on a regular basis as a midweek meal or a weekend lunch or dinner and it is particularly loved by the children.

This is a staple dish along the coast of Slovenian Istra, it is called by the locals Polpete, a dialect word very clearly influenced by the neighbouring Italian Polpette, that have some regional variations from North to South of Italy (the meat mixture would almost always include some kind of grated cheese, Parmiggiano Reggiano and Grana Padano are the two types of cheeses most frequently used).

Istrian polpete distinguish themselves from other variations by using fresh or dry marjoram, a herb that very commonly grows and thrives along the Slovenian coast with its mild Mediterranean climate, and characterizes quite specifically many savoury dishes in Istrian cooking, offering distinctive flavour.

I am sharing here this simple but special recipe for this scrumptious meat polpete that have been made and enjoyed in my family for generations, as a child I could never had enough of them.

Some things in my family just never change...

Recipe

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 250g minced beef

• 250g minced pork

• 2 soft white baps or some stale bread (roughly 130g)

• 150ml milk

• 1 Tbsp fresh marjoram, finely chopped (can use dry marjoram)

• a handful of fresh flat leaf parsley (about 15g), finely chopped

• 1 onion (about 100g), peeled and very finely chopped

• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and pressed

• 1 medium egg

• sea salt

• black pepper

• white dry breadcrumbs for coating the patties (roughly 150-200g)

• oil for frying

Method

Cut or tear with your hands white baps (or any other type of stale bread you are using) into small pieces and put them into a bowl.

Pour over the milk, mix well and leave to soak for a few minutes until the bread is completely softened (if necessary, squeeze out gently with your hands excessive milk).

While the bread is soaking in milk, prepare the meat mixture.

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Put both minced beef and minced pork in a fairly large bowl. Add finely chopped onions, crushed garlic, finely chopped fresh parsley and marjoram, egg, generous pinch of sea salt, black pepper and softened pieces of bread.

With your hand mix very well all the ingredients, almost using a squeezing action, to thoroughly combine the mixture (if you end up with bigger bread pieces just break them with your fingers).

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Shape the mixture into patties (I ended up with thirteen meat patties).

Coat in breadcrumbs and press a bit so the breadcrumbs adhere well, shake off gently any excessive breadcrumbs.

Repeat the process until you have used all the meat patties.

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Pour the oil into a large frying pan, about 1 cm, enough to cover the bottom of the pan and heat it over a medium heat (how much oil you need will depend on how big your frying pan is).Cook breaded patties over a medium heat, turning once or twice, until crisp and golden brown.

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Transfer fried meat patties into a dish lined with kitchen paper to allow excess oil to be absorbed.

If the patties are lined in a layer, make sure you put a kitchen paper between each layer.

Serve hot, warm, at room temperature or cold with mashed or oven roasted potatoes, a side salad or a side vegetable dish of your choice.

Just a thought

You can store cooked patties in an airtight container in the fridge for about two days.

If you wish to prepare this dish in advance, it is a good idea to store the uncooked and not fried breaded meat patties in an airtight container in the fridge, and just before frying, “refresh” the breadcrumbs coating by covering the patties in breadcrumbs once again, this will give you a crunchy coating.

If you are not in a rush, it is a good idea to chill the meat mixture in the fridge for a bit, (about 30 minutes or more) this will make it easier to handle and to shape the patties.

Meat mixture or raw, uncooked breaded patties are suitable for freezing (safely defrost and refresh the breadcrumbs coating before shallow frying, this is done because the breadcrumb coating gets a bit wet and soggy when you defrost the patties).

Wine suggestion

Dolcetto d'Alba DOC "Barturot" 2021 - Ca' Viola

Meatloaf with Hard Boiled Eggs and Oven Baked Potatoes Istrian Recipe

Meatloaf with hard boiled eggs is a real crowd pleaser.  It is moist, tender, satisfying, and comforting, and when eaten hot, it will warm you up body and soul. It is equally delicious cold, and it makes a fantastic starter. Slices of leftover meatloaf are a great sandwich filler, and it is also brilliant to take on picnics, as it transports very well. 

This dish is made with minced beef and pork combined with stale pieces of bread previously softened in milk, fresh parsley, marjoram, onions, garlic, salt and pepper, it is then shaped in a log and cooked. It has a rustic appearance from the outside but when you cut through it, it looks quite elegant and sophisticated, presenting itself quite cheffy, elaborate and complicated to make, but this meatloaf dish could not be easier to prepare. 

Nowadays, this dish might be considered and perceived to be a regular family midweek meal, or a weekend dinner, but this was not always the case. In fact, my nona  told me that in Slovenian Istra, meatloaf stuffed with hard boiled eggs was exclusively reserved for festivities and to celebrate special occasions. To make it extra special finely chopped pancetta would be added to the meat mix and it could also be baked wrapped inside bread dough, almost resembling Beef Wellington. Another way of cooking the meatloaf is wrapping it in a cloth and boiling it in plenty of simmering water. 

This dish is called Polpeton by the locals, a dialect word clearly influenced by the neighbouring Italian Polpettone, which has numerous regional variations from North to South of Italy. 

Regardless of what it is called, Polpettone in Italian, or Polpeton in Istrian , they both showcase a very humble but creative way of using stale bread or breadcrumbs, the latter one, once again, being home made from old bread. 

The Istrian meatloaf distinguishes itself from the others by adding fresh or dry marjoram, a herb very commonly grown along the Slovenian coast, and characterizes quite specifically many savoury dishes in Istrian cooking, offering distinctive flavour. 

I am sharing here my nona's recipe for this delicious meat loaf which is traditionally served and enjoyed with sone oven roasted potatoes, a selection of vegetables and a side salad. 

This is easier to make than it looks, give it a go, it will become one of your favourite recipes for meatloaves, and you will be asked to share the recipe by your family and friends. 

Recipe 

Ingredients 

Serves 4-6 

• 250g minced beef 

• 250g minced pork 

• 2 soft white baps or some stale bread (roughly 120g) 

• 150ml milk

• 1 Tbsp marjoram (fresh or dry), finely chopped 

• a handful of fresh flat leaf parsley (about 12g), finely chopped 

• 1 onion (about 100g), peeled and finely chopped 

• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and pressed 

• 1 egg, slightly beaten 

• 4 eggs, hard boiled and peeled 

• sea salt 

• black pepper 

Oven baked potatoes (optional) 

• 500g potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes 

• extra virgin olive oil, generous drizzle 

• sea salt, to taste 

• black pepper, to taste 

Method 

Preheat the oven to 180C or equivalent. 

Cut or tear with your hands white baps (or any other type of stale bread you are using) into small pieces and put them into a bowl. Pour over the milk, mix well and leave to soak for a few minutes until the bread is completely softened (if necessary squeeze out gently with your hands excessive milk). 

While the bread is soaking in milk, prepare the meat mixture. 

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Put both minced beef and minced pork in a fairly large bowl. Add finely chopped onions, crashed garlic, finely chopped fresh parsley and marjoram, lightly beaten egg, generous pinch of sea salt, black pepper and softened pieces of bread.    

With your hand mix very well all the ingredients, almost using a squeezing action, to thoroughly combine the mixture (if you end up with bigger bread pieces just break them with your fingers). 

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Transfer the meat mixture onto a large sheet of baking parchment (roughly the size of your baking tray) and flatten it with your hands into an approximate 30x25cm (12 x 10 inch) rectangle. 

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Place 4 whole hard boiled eggs in a row, along the centre and form the meatloaf around the eggs using the baking parchment.

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Press it gently to seal any seams, and tuck well the edges. 

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Transfer the meat loaf, seam side down (together with the baking parchment) on to a baking tray. 

Place cubed potatoes around the meatloaf, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper to taste. With your hands arrange them in a single layer and mix and toss so all the cubed potatoes are evenly coated in olive oil and the seasoning. 

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Bake at180C static or equivalent for 60 minutes. 

Halfway through baking, check the colour of the meatloaf, if it is browning too much, tent it with some aluminium foil to prevent it from browning too much and starting to burn. 

When baked, cover the meat loaf with the aluminium foil to keep it warm and allow it to rest for a bit before slicing it. 

Just a thought 

Meatloaf will keep in the fridge, in an airtight container, for about 3-4 days. Best reheat it in a microwave, covered. 

Before baking the meatloaf you can “dress it up” by topping it with overlapping slices of pancetta giving it that additional festive look and flavour. 

Wine suggestion

Chianti Colli Senesi DOCG 2021 - Poliziano

Bread dumplings Recipe

Bread dumplings are a real crowd pleaser, they are made from a mixture of stale bread soaked in milk and combined with fresh parsley, marjoram, onions, pancetta, beaten egg, seasoned with sea salt and black pepper, then formed into a ball shape and gently cooked in simmering water.

They can be easily turned into a vegetarian friendly option by simply omitting the meaty element and adding, if prefer, a bit of grated cheese, depending on your preference.

They are served as a perfect companion to stews, braised meats and roasted meats with a gravy. The idea behind these dumplings is to squash them with the fork, and this will soak up all the juices of whatever is accompanying them. In other words, it is an ideal side dish for almost anything that has some kind of sauce with it.

Bread dumplings with Venison stew

I simply love the recipes that provide some kind of a solution to the “problem” of avoiding food waste, and in this case the recipe is a brilliant side dish that uses - nothing more than stale bread as the key ingredient.

This is one of those recipes that you do not really need to plan since you can make bread dumplings when you simply end up with old bread and do not know what to do with it. If you have quite a bit of it to use up, then double or triple the ingredients since you can freeze a big batch of bread dumplings.

These rustic and elegant bread dumplings became a staple dish in a lot of cuisines of Eastern and Central Europe where stale bread has been very cleverly turned into a pure delicacy.

In Slovenia, where I was born and grew up, bread dumplings, called Kruhovi cmoki, have been so popular they almost became a national dish, and this recipe is most similar, or actually almost identical to the Austrian and South German( Bavarian) variety, where it is believed bread dumplings originated from, and are referred to as Semmelknödel.

There are a variety of bread dumpling recipes, for example, in the Czech Republic, fresh herbs, onions and the meaty element is not added to the bread mixture, which is also not shaped into small balls, but instead into a roll, then boiled and sliced.

Similar to bread dumplings are Canederli, found in Italy, in Trentino Alto Adige, an autonomous province of Italy, and in Austria, where small pieces of speck (lightly smoked cured meat) and cheese are added to the basic bread mixture, then they are shaped into small balls and typically cooked and served in hot beef or chicken broth.

This dish was one of my favourite dishes when I was a child, and it really does take me down memory lane. My mother would prepare them quite often, and I am sharing here her recipe, a typical Istrian variation of bread dumplings, in which fresh marjoram is added to the basic bread mixture.

Ingredients

Will make about 8 dumplings, depending on the size.

• 310g roughly of stale bread (for this recipe I used 5 stale white baps)

• 250-300ml milk (skimmed, semi skimmed or full fat)

• 1 egg, beaten

• 2 Tbsp olive oil

• a handful of fresh flat leaf parsley (about 10g), finely chopped

• 1 medium onion (about 100g), peeled and finely chopped

• sea salt

• ground black pepper

• 40-50g sliced pancetta, cut into very small pieces (can use bacon or lardons), optional

• 1 Tbsp fresh marjoram, very finely chopped, optional

• all purpose flour (enough to coat the bread dumplings)

• 1 Tbsp white dry breadcrumbs (only if needed)

Method

Cut or tear with your hands white baps (or any other type of stale bread you are using) into small pieces and put them in a fairly large bowl. Pour over the milk, mix well and leave to soak for about 20-30 minutes or until the bread is completely softened.

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While the bread is soaking in milk, prepare the onion and pancetta mixture.

Put olive oil, finely chopped onions and small pieces of pancetta in a frying pan. Gently fry the mixture until the onions become nice and soft and transparent but not brown. Cool the pancetta and onion mixture and set aside.

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Add to the bowl with the soaked bread, the beaten egg, onion and pancetta mixture, finely chopped parsley and marjoram and season with sea salt and black pepper.

With your hand(s) mix very well all the ingredients, almost using a squeezing action, to thoroughly combine the mixture. You should end up with a bread mixture that is soft, and with a fairly smooth consistency (if you end up with bigger bread pieces just break them with your fingers).

Adjust the mixture, adding a bit of breadcrumbs (and never the flour, as the mixture will get too sticky and will become unworkable), one tablespoon at the time, if the bread mixture is too wet.

On the contrary, if you feel the mixture is too hard and dry, add a bit of milk.

It is important to use a bit of personal judgment and intuition here. The idea behind this recipe is using the stale bread or a combination of different types of stale bread which will absorb a slightly different quantity of liquid, therefore the moisture of the bread mixture needs to be adjusted accordingly.

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Wet you hands (this will prevent the dough to stick to your hands).

Take roughly a handful of the mixture and shape it into a compact ball, about the size of a tennis ball.

Repeat the process until you run out of the mixture.

Put some flour into a deep plate or a bowl.

Gently coat each dumpling into a flour and remove excess flour (this will prevent sticking).

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Fill a large pot of water and bring to boil. Turn down the heat and leave the water to a gentle boil.

With a slotted spoon, drop one dumpling at the time in a simmering water and cook for about 15 minutes. Do not allow the dumplings to cook in a strong boiling water as they might loose the shape and fall apart.

Remove cooked dumplings with a slotted spoon and transfer onto a serving plate or directly on the plates, serve warm.

Just a thought

Bread dumplings are suitable for freezing.

You can freeze uncooked dumplings by freezing them individually first, and then transfer them into freezing bags or containers. Do not defrost the dumplings when you need them, just plop them frozen directly into a simmering water and cook them slightly longer, and they are cooked when they float on the surface.

Alternatively, you can freeze already cooked dumplings. Cool them first, freeze them individually and place in freezing bags or containers. When you want to use the dumplings, let them thaw first and then reheat covered, in order to get some steam, using a microwave works well.

You can “recycle” this dish even further, if you end up with some left over cooked dumplings, slice them up and fry the slices on both sides lightly in a frying pan with some butter or olive oil.

You really could not ask anything more from stale bread!

Wine suggestion

Alto Adige Schiava DOC "Menzen" 2020 - Colterenzio