CROUTONS

Steps:

• For a quick bite to eat, or when a few guests are about to arrive and I want to have a little something ready, a crouton is the first thing I think of. Croutons, croutes, crostini, toast, and bruschetta are all names for variously sized pieces of bread, usually toasted or grilled, sometimes dried out in the oven, sometimes fried. A bruschetta is a thick piece of bread that is grilled over an open fire, or toasted, and rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil, to be served either as is or piled high with juicy tomatoes and basil. Croutons, crostini, and toasts usually refer to thin slices of bread, but croutons can also be small pieces of bread cut into cubes or torn in irregular pieces and either toasted or fried in butter or olive oil and used to garnish a soup or a salad.
• Any good-quality bread will make a good crouton. A thick slice of a big round, country-style loaf grilled and drizzled with green olive oil makes a distinctly different crouton than a thin triangular toasted slice of dense white bread with its crusts cut off, brushed with melted butter, and one point dipped in chopped parsley before serving. The croutons I make most often are sliced from a big round loaf of levain bread. They're usually not uniform sizes and I always oil them after toasting, just after I've rubbed some garlic on them.
• Roughly torn pieces of bread (what's sometimes called pulled bread), toasted in the oven and tossed in oil, make good croutons for a salad.
• Baguettes are handy for croutons because they can be easily sliced into regular rounds or cut on the diagonal into long ovals, which are good for dipping into fava bean purée or tapenade.
• For croutons that are more evenly browned and crunchier and that have a more fried taste, oil or butter the bread slices before you cook them. Small croutons can be tossed in a bowl with oil or melted butter before going into the oven. Place larger, flat croutons in a single layer on a baking sheet, brush with oil or butter, and bake at 350°F until they just start to turn golden at the edges. Keep an eye on them; the timing will vary greatly, depending on the kind of bread used, how dry it is, and how thick it's cut. For a tasty garnish to a soup or salad, toss croutons hot out of the oven with chopped garlic and herbs.
• Fry little cubed croutons in butter to strew atop a delicate puréed soup. Use enough butter to coat the pan generously, adding more as it is absorbed by the croutons, stirring or tossing frequently over medium heat until the croutons are golden brown.
• To grill slices of bread, place them on the grill rack over a bed of medium-hot coals for a minute or two on each side. The bread should have nice charred marks from the grill and be golden brown here and there. I rub the slices with a clove of garlic and drizzle olive oil over the bread after it's grilled.
• Croutons taste best when they are made fresh, but the bread can be cut in advance. Wrap the bread slices in a kitchen towel to keep them from drying out (croutons tend to warp and curl up if left uncovered). When ready to serve, the bread can be quickly laid out and toasted.