CSA week three - lard bread pudding

The lard bread I baked last Friday was on the fast track to stales-ville so I figured I'd better use it quick. I considered making some really weird french toast, but settled on a savory bread pudding that would let me rectify my mistake of not putting in nearly enough salami or cheese.

It's a pretty simple procedure that I've discussed before. First, I sauteed up onions, mushrooms, a squash from the CSA along with a good handful of salami bits. Then I layered slices of the bread (I left out the step of buttering the slices since they were already chock full of fat.), layers of the sauteed mix and layers of sliced provolone and grated Parmesan and Romano cheese, ladling over an egg/milk as I went along.


I packed the 8"x8" baking dish pretty good so I wasn't able to get a spoon to get the extra eggy mix out so I could baste it as it soaked. That meant that, after a half hour at 375, the bottom layer came out mushy, the center layer the targetted custardy texture and the top toasty crisp. Two out of three's not bad.

I should have used a bit more vegetables for balance, but otherwise a good result. The addition of the Parmesan and Romano brings some complexity of flavor to the cheesiness and the fine-ground salametti I switched to since I ran out of the salami I used in the bread was an improvement. And my spell-checker recognizes salametti. Huh. And the squash (which made up the bulk of the vegetables) matched well with provolone and salami which is not something you'd necessarily predict.

I'll have to make a bread pudding with a less rustic bread one of these days to see if I can make something a little more refined out of it.