A zero-waste, Michelin-starred recipe that lets you reuse stale bread by turning it into pizza instead of the classic dough crust.

Photo by Alberto Blasetti

Main Ingredients

Stale or hard bread (slices about 1.5 cm thick)
Tomato sauce, to taste
Fiordilatte or scamorza cheese, to taste
Extra virgin olive oil and water (for soaking)
Salt, pepper, and basil or oregano, to taste

Instructions

Prepare the baking dish

Generously grease a round baking dish or baking sheet with extra-virgin olive oil, making sure to cover the edges well.

Cut and moisten the bread

Cut the bread into slices about one and a half centimeters thick. If the bread is very hard, quickly dip the slices (“una calata,” as the chef says) in water and a drizzle of oil, without soaking them too much (if it’s fresh, just a little moisture is enough).

Assemble the base

Arrange the bread slices in the baking dish very close together, filling every small gap to create a solid base.

Season

Season the surface with tomato sauce, a pinch of salt, a drizzle of oil, and the fiordilatte cut into small pieces.

Baking

Bake at about 200°C for the first few minutes to make the base crispy, then finish baking at 180°C until the cheese has melted and the edges are golden brown.

Recipe taken from the book “Del pane non buttto via niente”, published by Gambero Rosso