Back in February, we hosted a supper club with food writer and stylist, Kitty Coles.
The idea of this seasonal feast was to highlight new and interesting ways to use bread as a versatile ingredient, beyond a substantial sandwich or your morning toast.
Having grown up in her parents’ restaurant, Kitty now works as a food writer, recipe developer and food stylist, splitting her time between London, Dublin, and Mallorca. Currently the food editor at The Gloss Magazine with The Irish Times and a regular contributor to The Guardian’s Feast, Kitty has also worked on cookbooks such as Mezcla by Ixta Belfrage and Food You Want to Eat by Thomas Straker as well as several of Anna Jones’ books and alongside the likes of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Pasta Grannies to mention but a few.
Last April, Kitty published her first recipe book Make More With Less. As the title suggests, this is a book full of flavour packed, simple dishes and fool proof recipes designed to make your weekly shop go further. Her ‘sweet breadcrumbs’ recipe was one of our favourites in the book and the fact Kitty regularly holds supper clubs and has a whole chapter dedicated to what to do with leftover bread felt like a meeting of minds and an invitation to create something together all in one.
Kitty’s waste less approach and her commitment to seasonality fits perfectly with our Waste Not ethos. As bakers, we are always looking at ways in which we can reduce waste, reuse whatever we can and make our baking as sustainable as possible. Baking is a brilliant way to give a second life to good food and great ingredients, turning the old, the wonky and the offcuts into something new, innovative and delicious. Thanks to the craft, skill and ability of our bakers to think outside the baking tray, cheese rinds, excess fruit and unused dough are transformed into freshly baked delicacies, each with a deeper layer of flavour, texture and craft.
With our shared love of a waste less approach and seasonal ingredients, together, we wanted to come up with a menu that not only showcased the many ways in which leftover bread can be used to create a range of different dishes but that also allowed seasonality, ingredients and the methods we use to bake our bread to shine.
After lots of discussion, idea sharing and recipe tastings, we came up with a menu that transformed ingredients, bread and the concept of making more with less into a supper worth singing for. Salty anchovies and freshly sliced tomato on toasted San Francisco Sourdough. Nutty white beans with wild garlic clams, mopped up with freshly baked baguette. Homemade ice cream with crunchy Brown Sourdough pangrattato (a.k.a Kitty’s sweet breadcrumbs). With every dish came animated discussions around provenance, process and produce - an evening of great conversations, thought provoking food and a new appreciation of what to do with leftover bread.
A Bread Supper
Tomato and anchovy on San Francisco Sourdough toast
-
Braised broccoli and Parmesan on Brown Sourdough toast
-
Homemade ricotta on Brown Sourdough toast
-
Braised Cocco Bianco beans, wild garlic clams, baguette
-
Seasonal greens
-
Ice cream, Brown Sourdough pangrattato, olive oil
Kitty’s book Make More With Less is available to buy here and you can follow her explorations into all things food related here.
