Zuppa Gallurese

On one of our many cruises, Joe and I were in Sardinia and joined another couple for a wine tasting & lunch in the foothills overlooking a small family-run winery. The food, wine, scenery, and company all combined for one glorious Mediterranean afternoon. The highlight of the day was an unassuming, brown casserole tray that was called Zuppa Gallurese, the local “soup” that was basically a savory bread pudding crammed with an absurd amount of cheese. The cheese gets all melty and mixed in with the broth – it’s like the bread that sits on top of a bowl of French onion soup, but all the way down.

I have no idea if my homemade recreation is at all in keeping with the recipe we had that day, but it always reminds us of that perfect vacation memory, and is a really flexible “cook-down-the-kitchen” recipe that I make whenever we have too much sourdough or cheese, or even extra brisket gravy, on hand. In terms of measurements, I sort of start with how much bread I need to use up and go from there. For half a loaf of sourdough, it’ll take about 6 cups of broth, and at least 5 cups of cheese (1 cup grated Parmesan, and 2 cups of the other two), but pile on even more if you like things really cheesy. I usually go to the trouble of buying Fontina, but otherwise will use whatever other cheeses that I have on hand for the middle layers – Mozzarella and Gouda both work well, and the “correct” regional cheese to use is a young, soft Pecorino,, but I have never found that at the regular grocery store. For the broth, I’ll save excess cooking liquid from a batch of short ribs, lamb stew, or brisket, and then just use boxed beef stock to make up the difference.