Pancot e pantrito

🍞 Pancot and Pantrito: two humble dishes of Valtellinese tradition

Ancient recipes with stale bread, simple yet rich in flavor and history 🌄🥄

Introduction

The Pancot and the Pantrito are two humble dishes from Valtellinese peasant cuisine, created to use up stale bread and transform it into a nutritious, warm, and comforting meal.
Made with very simple ingredients like butter, oil, and broth cube, they can be enriched with a raw or fried egg to make them more substantial.
Two true testimonies of the saying “nothing goes to waste,” perfect to enjoy even today to rediscover the authentic flavors of the mountains. ⛰️

📝 Ingredients (for 4 people)

• 400 g of stale bread cut into small pieces or grated
• 50 g of butter
• 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 broth cube
• Salt to taste
• Eggs (optional, to enrich the final dish)

👩‍🍳 Preparation of Pancot

1. In a large pot, add the following ingredients cold:
   • the stale bread pieces
   • the butter
   • the broth cube
   • sufficient water to cover everything
2. Bring to a boil and cook until the bread is completely softened and a thick soup forms.
3. Serve in bowls and drizzle with a little raw oil before serving.
4. If you want to make it richer, add a raw or fried egg directly into the hot dish.

🍲 Variation: Pantrito

• Use coarsely grated stale bread instead of pieces.
• Proceed in the same way, creating a sort of more homogeneous “creamy soup.”

💡 Tips

• Perfect as a recycling dish, it can be flavored with rosemary, black pepper, or grated cheese.
• Great to serve as comfort food on cold days.

The image of the dishes is purely indicative and may not necessarily correspond exactly to the recipe
📚 Recipe by Giovanni Bonazzi – Sondrio