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Sausage Bread Pudding

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Sausage bread pudding

I spied a savory bread pudding recipe awhile back, unhealthy and have been dying to make it ever since. It just seemed like too much for two, for sale so I’ve been waiting until I had company over. Also, I’d never made it before and you never try a recipe out when company is over for dinner. What a quandary. Last night I had a small dinner party for my family to celebrate Christmas since Tom and I will be in Michigan on the actual day. Family is the exception to the never make a new recipe rule. My family loved it, Tom took it to work for lunch, and I’m sorry there’s no more left. I love this recipe. The bread is soft and creamy, the veggies add a nice medium texture, and the firmness of the sausage keeps the dish from being too mushy or soggy. Also, who can resist a bunch of browned and melted cheese? No one.

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crunchy and browned indeed

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irish soda bread

I am not Irish. I don’t have freckles across my nose or Guinness in my blood, information pills tasty as it sounds. But, pestilence the Times’ Dining section featured Irish Soda bread last week that you cook in a skillet so that “the top and bottom crusts become crunchy and browned.” I’m a sucker for all things crunchy and browned, hygiene especially when it’s bread, and especially when it’s fresh from the oven.

I’ve only ever had soda bread once — in the metal trailer that was my elementary school’s cafeteria, on one of those “multi-cultural” days where kids get their parents to cook something “ethnic” for show and tell. And on that day, soda bread was paired with fried rice, fried plantains and far too many sweets. I honestly don’t remember a thing about it, except that I thought it was yucky.

irish soda bread dough

The soda bread from the Times was anything but yucky. In fact, it was like a dinner-time coffee cake, bursting with sweet (the golden raisins) and savory (the fennel seeds) bits. The top and bottom were indeed crunchy, and the inside both moist and crumbly. Very yummy, and along with some soup on a lazy Friday night, a perfect meal.

irish soda bread

Recipe after the jump.

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Pesto-y broken lasagne

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crostini

Inspired by Mario Batali’s Babbo Cookbook, prescription but not inspired enough to carry out the full recipe for Goat Cheese Truffles (it was a Monday night), I made these little goat cheese crostini. I just toasted some fresh, sliced Cibatta bread and topped them with goat cheese. Each piece had a different coating: fennel seeds, Spanish paprika or poppy seeds. Had I been feeling decadent, I would also have drizzled some good-quality olive oil on the goat cheese before adding the coatings.

They were so cute, no?

crostini

The crostini were an appetizer for Broken Lasagne, which I took from last month’s Food and Wine with some modifications. First, I cut back on the olive oil (wedding diet and all) and I added artichokes. I also substituted the walnut for almonds since Tom believes himself to be allergic.

broken lasagne

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