I was trying to decide what to make for dinner, last night, and nothing was particularly catching my fancy, when I realized we had some slightly stale herbed breadsticks from some previous takeout, as well as the heels from a loaf of cheese bread we'd gotten from Whole Foods at least two weeks ago. It seemed like a shame to waste them, so I thought, what could I do with stale bread? The traditional way to rescue stale bread is to soak it in a custard and cook it. I suppose I could've gone with something like a savory french toast, and topped it with veggies. But instead, I cubed the bread (roughly 1-2cm), tossed it with some sauteed veggies (with some sweet balsamic and additional herbs and spices) and grated aged asiago, poured over the custard (five eggs thoroughly beaten, with a roughly equal volume of whole milk whisked in) and then baked the whole thing at 350F for 40 minutes. Basically a savory trifle, or a hybrid between a quiche and frittata (using the bread where we'd usually use potato).
It was really quite good -- the bread in the bottom was all soft and custardy, while the cubes that stuck out the top were lightly browned and crunchy.
pleased 