Golden-brown bread crumbs make a nice finishing touch for pasta dishes like this one—a light counterpoint of texture, taste, and color. Start with ordinary dried crumbs (see page 19) that have some larger bits in them, rather than crumbs that have been ground and sieved into a fine powder.
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
To toast, put the crumbs you need (1/2 cup or so for most pasta dishes) in a small dry skillet and set over medium heat. Keep tossing or stirring the crumbs—in a minute or so, they will start to color. Lower the heat if they’re browning fast, and keep tossing until the crumbs are getting fairly close to the color you like. Remove the skillet from the heat now, and toss while the residual heat colors the crumbs the deep-golden shade you like, then turn them out of the pan.
Step 2
If you toast them completely and leave them in the skillet, they will get too dark or even burn. I know from experience.
