The Scarpetta Club: Recipes You Simply Can’t Eat Without Bread

Try to lick your own elbow. Or put on mascara without opening your mouth. Or simultaneously move your hands at different speeds. How many times have you tried any of these and failed? Trying to eat the dishes in this collection of recipes without mopping up your plate with bread is another exercise in futility. Those who love bread with tomato sauce or bread with oil know: what some see as just a few extra mouthfuls is the best part of a meal for others. We lose ourselves in the fragrance of bread or take a bite as soon as it’s brought to the table, but we love it even more when it soaks up something else we adore.

And when it mixes with tomato sauce so intensely, it becomes irresistible.

While this recipe is a sort of love note to the scarpetta (the very Italian custom of sopping up leftover sauce with bread), there are many others ready to satisfy this healthy desire. But let’s start with our trusty tool and remember: there’s a different type of bread for each type of sauce.

For seafood recipes

Peppered mussels, stews, soups, and sautés scream for bread. It’s impossible to leave any trace of such delights on your dish! In fact, the sauce encapsulates the fragrance of the sea, the intensity of the shellfish, and every delicious peppery note. Sometimes you can even pick up on that splash of white wine that got everything started on the stove. And to accompany such goodness, the perfect bread must be slightly dry – thirsty for liquids and eager to soak up the sauce without becoming too mushy. To give your scarpetta an aromatic twist, choose a Sicilian bread with wild fennel seeds.

For soaking up lots of sauce

It’s said that the scarpetta was invented in Naples, where bread was dragged over plates to pick up every last bit, just like shoes do along the road (“scarpetta” literally means “little shoe”). So why not dip “pane cafone,” a type of peasant bread, into your tomato sauce? This simple and traditional Neapolitan product can be easily found in Italian bakeries and features a thin crust and a generous, dense center.

If there are beans

Bean or lentil soups are often enhanced with tomatoes, guanciale and wine. The result? Rich and flavorful remnants that are impossible to leave in your bowl. And to best pick it all up, we suggest using a slice of fresh, fragrant Tuscan bread. Cut into thick slices and then into cubes, it’s the perfect base to balance out the saltiness of the soup and fully enjoy its flavor profile.

Our best recipes for scarpetta: