Toasting Bread Crumbs

Appears in
Marcella's Italian Kitchen

By Marcella Hazan

Published 1986

  • About

Bread crumbs are as vital to many Italian dishes as mortar is to bricklaying. Crumbs are applied to the surface of food, as in a cutlet milanese, or added to a marinade, like the one used on the Adriatic when grilling fish, or mixed into a meat loaf: They are there to absorb excess moisture and to retain the appropriate amount of butter, oil, or other cooking fat.

If crumbs are too soft, they do not produce ideal results because they become soggy and pasty. To obtain fine texture and correct absorption quality from crumbs, I prepare them as follows: