Bread Pudding with Asparagus and Fontina Cheese

Name: Bread Pudding with Asparagus and Fontina Cheese
Yield: Serves 6–8
Ingredients: ½ cup (¾ oz/20 g) chopped mixed fresh herbs such as chives, flat-leaf parsley, tarragon, thyme, and marjoram; 8–12 thick slices stale bread, each slice cut in half; 1 lb (500 g) asparagus, tough ends removed, and cut on the diagonal into 2-inch (5-cm) lengths; 5 large eggs; 2½ cups (20 fl oz/625 ml) whole milk, plus more if needed; 1 tsp freshly ground pepper; 1 tsp sea salt; ½ Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces; ½ lb (250 g) Fontina cheese, slivered; ¼ cup (1 oz/30 g) freshly grated Romano cheese

Preparation info

Serves
6–8

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Cheese Obsession

By Georgeanne Brennan

Published 2013

About

Slivers of Fontina cheese are dotted throughout this savory pudding and offer bursts of rich flavor; the Romano brings a hit of chewy saltiness. Save up your leftover bread for a week, including baguette heels; heavy breads make a dense pudding; lighter ones yield a softer texture.

Ingredients

8–12 thick slices stale bread, each slice cut in half
2½ cups (20 fl oz/625

Side dish
Savoury
Leftovers
Vegetarian

Method

Place the bread in a shallow dish and pour the milk over the top. Let soak until the bread has absorbed the milk and softened. Depending on the hardness of the bread, this will take from 5–30 minutes. Squeeze the bread slices to extract the milk. Measure the milk extracted; you should have ½ cup (