Can you believe these absolutely delicious round and golden egg fritters are made with stale bread? Indeed. I have a large tin in my pantry where I store stale bread. Once it’s full, the tin comes out of the pantry and pretty much stays on the counter until it’s empty again. In between full and empty mode, we end up eating lots of yummy things, like these savory egg fritters. I like them best topped with a good, plain tomato sauce. I find the sweetness and moistness of the sauce nicely complements the crispy, mildly cheesy fritters.
I recycle bread. I know, it sounds silly, right? But with what a good loaf of gourmet crusty bread costs, I just can’t get myself to throw any of it away. So I slice it and leave it out on a cookie sheet for a few days…and just about the time when hubby gets tired of seeing it on display, it’s ready for the tin (usually 4-5 days).
While on the subject of bread, use the best crusty gourmet bread you can find to make these puppies. Success in the taste and texture of egg fritters very much depends on the bread’s quality. Here’s how you can test it: the bread, once wet, should never look gluey or soggy, but should hold its shape and remain springy to the touch when you squeeze the water out of it. I have tried using supermarket bagged bread and found that, once wet, it turned into white, gluey sludge. It kinda scared me a little, actually. Needless to say, I threw the whole mess out and made something else that day.
Make plenty, consider even doubling the recipe, because they taste really good reheated the next day. I also put them in my girls’ lunches with some carrot sticks, a yogurt and some wheat thins and they are HAPPY.
But the best, of course, is when they are still hot, topped with some sumptuous fresh tomato sauce. Add some steamed broccoli and garlic and olive oil bruschetta and you have a perfect brunch, lunch or light dinner.
making round & golden egg fritters
To make them, soak 8 oz. of stale, crusty, gourmet-style bread for an hour. (You can soak up to 8 hours in the refrigerator.) If you don’t have any stale bread, toast roughly ripped or cut slices of fresh bread at 350 ° for 10 minutes.
Break 6 eggs into a bowl and then add the bread, 1 cup of Parmesan, 1/3 cup of roughly chopped parsley, and salt & pepper to taste.
Mix thoroughly. At this point, the texture should be fairly runny.
Take a wide-bottomed, nonstick frying pan and pour enough expeller-presses sunflower oil to completely cover the bottom (about ¼ inch high). Heat the oil on medium-high heat to almost smoking. This last point is important because the hotter the oil, the less oil gets absorbed into the fritters (or anything else you’re frying for that matter.)
Spoon the egg mixture gently into the oil. Use a small spoon for smaller, daintier fritters and a large spoon for larger, flatter fritters. Don’t over-crowd the pan as you fry them. They’ll not only cook better, but they’ll be easier to flip.
Cook for a couple of minutes and then gently lift part of a fritter out of the oil to see if it has turned a lovely golden color. If it has, turn it over. If not, continue to check it every 10 seconds or so until it has. Once the fritters have formed a golden crust all over, they are done.
Transfer them onto a plate covered with paper towels to drain.
As soon as the entire batch is done, top each fritter with a dollop of hot, classic tomato sauce (recipe below) and serve at once. Makes 12 fritters.
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