How To Make Italian Seasoned Breadcrumbs ~ Recipe

Bread crumbs are used for so many recipes, from meatballs, to stuffing, to meatloaf, cabbage rolls. They’re an essential staple in the Italian household. Along with bread.

I can not begin to tell you how much stale, hardened bread I find in the bread box each week. We used to be HUGE bread eaters, but in the past few months, we’ve all cut down on it. YAY! However, this has led to an epidemic of stale, hardened bread.

I’ve always felt awful throwing bread out. Flour is expensive, yeast is expensive, making bread expensive. Bread crumbs, at least good bread crumbs are also expensive.

I remember being a little girl, and my job on Saturdays used to be to grate the hardened bread. Mom would then store them and use them during the week.

I decided that I was now going to do the same thing. I collected all of the stale and hardened bread from the bread box, and made Seasoned Breadcrumbs. 

How To Make Italian Seasoned Breadcrumbs ~ Recipe

Gather all of your stale bread, a grater (box, container, what have you), a large bowl or pan, and grate away!

 

 

Add a tablespoon of salt, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning to your grated bread.

 

 

Stir all of the ingredients together using a wooden spoon. You can also use your hands for this if you’d like to.

 

 

Once all of the ingredients have been combined, layer the bread crumbs into a baking pan and bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes. Even though your bread is stale, the inside “dough” can still be humid.

 

 

The first ten minutes of baking will allow the humidity of the bread to draw out, and begin to dry it.

I set my timer for 10 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and stir the crumbs. Then I return it to the oven for another ten minutes and repeat the process until all of it is golden brown and toasty. This usually take up to 30 minutes, depending on how stale the bread was.

 

Now You Have Italian Seasoned Breadcrumbs!

You can now use them in what ever dishes you use breadcrumbs in! You can store them in a jar, freezer/storage bag, tupperware container, etc. They can last up to six months in the refrigerator and/or freezer.

If you find any thicker or large pieces, just crumble them up!

What do you do with your stale and hardened bread?