Menu Fifteen

The Bean Soup Lunch

Appears in

By David Tanis

Published 2008

  • About
Garlic toast is one of the best things to eat. There are many ways to make it, but here is my favorite. You need, first and foremost, a good loaf of bread. Find a bakery that makes an honest loaf. For me, that means a hearth-baked bread that is made of only flour, water, yeast, and salt—a loaf with a good crust, a good texture, and the flavor of wheat. It’s not important whether the loaf is whole-grain or white. Day-old bread makes especially good toast.
Then comes the question of how to toast the bread. I would try to have a fire going outside, and to rig up a grill, raking coals aside to toast bread over the cooler part. (If toasting over coals is not practical, an electric toaster or even a toaster oven is fine, if less romantic.)