Every Last Crumb with James Ramsden: Recipe & Conversation
Every Last Crumb is a collection of thrifty, delicious, resourceful recipes designed to make the most of your bread, minimise food waste and inspire creativity from chef, food writer and cookbook author James Ramsden. James is one half of cult sandwich shop Sons + Daughters and co-founder of innovative Hackney restaurant Pidgin which serves a weekly changing tasting menu of stunning seasonal food along with natural and biodynamic wines.
This book fuses his love of bread with a zero-waste mentality and culinary ingenuity in a way that speaks directly to our core values and approach to food here at Social Pantry, so we were delighted to get to chat to James about the book, his food memories and biggest pleasures when it comes to bread, and bring you a delicious recipe for Ribollita – a hearty soup made with tomatoes, beans, cavolo Nero, stale bread and a profligate amount of olive oil – from the chapter of Every Last Crumb titled ‘Crusts’.
Your career in food has included working in some of London’s most prestigious restaurants, co-founding the innovative weekly-changing tasting menu restaurant Pidgin, cult-favourite sandwich shop Sons + Daughters, hosting a podcast and writing four cookbooks… why a book on bread?
I suspect this is one of many books borne of lockdown fatigue and its associated symptoms. We were at home without much to do other than bake a lot of bread and avoid home-schooling. And there was a lot of bread. Which meant there was often a loaf that was a couple of days old. It occurred to me that there weren’t many books to inspire the posessor of an ageing loaf, and also that I had quite a lot of time on my hands (especially once the schools had gone back) to write again – which I hadn’t really done since we opened Pidgin in 2015.
What are your food memories of bread growing up?
Preferring going to my friend Ted’s for tea because a) his mum let us eat white bread and b) we didn’t have to eat the crusts. Loving the seeded rolls from the Bakers Oven in Ripon that we’d have our cheese and pickle sandwiches in. Eating quite a lot of meatloaf. Bread and butter pudding of course. Terrible sandwiches at school.
Why do you think society has come to waste so much bread and what should we be doing about it?
Well buying this book would be a start. We waste a lot of food generally – not just bread – because it’s hard to avoid unless you are incredibly organised and absolutely committed to not wasting food. Which in practice is really difficult for people to do day-to-day. I hope this book will at least make that a little easier.
What’s something people can do with bread they might not have thought of before?
Make kvass – it’s a Slavic fermented bread drink, sort of like a very light and yeasty beer, and is very refreshing and incredibly delicious.
At Social Pantry, we cater zero-waste dinner parties and provide menus that use every part of the ingredient from start to finish. If you were to host a zero-waste, loaf inspired supper club with Social Pantry featuring recipes from the book, what would be on the menu?
While the weather is still hot and somewhat muggy, I’d probably start with a few snacky bits – a bowl of cold salmorejo, some taramasalata, dukkah with olive oil and sourdough; then perhaps a lovely fattoush with merguez; and finish with some brown bread ice cream. Keep it light.
Quick Fire with JameSourdough or focaccia? Focaccia
Tin loaf or baguette? Baguette
Floury bap or brioche bun? Bap
Bake your own bread, or buy great bread? Take your pick.
The loaf we’re most likely to find in your kitchen: Sourdough from Vanora’s in Ripon.
Three bakeries you love: Vanora’s in Ripon, Dusty Knuckle in Dalston, E5 Bakehouse in Hackney.
A bakery you’ve yet to try but want to: The bakery formerly known as Frog.
Your ultimate ‘bread pleasure”: Ultimate pleasure is what my wife calls my toast station which comes into play on the weekend. The tactic is to wait until the kids are watching telly (to avoid scavengers), make a pot of hot, strong coffee, get the toast on, and ensure there’s a lot of butter, a pot of marmalade and a newspaper ready. Then just really lean into the next 30 minutes.
Ribollita
Many years ago I spent several months working on a farm in the middle of Tuscany. I had gone there to work as a chef but it was decided my skill levels were, ah, somewhere below what was required, and so I was turfed into the garden to plant herbs, feed pigs and slaughter the occasional rooster (I vacuum-packed its testicles and put them in the freezer as a prank. Good times…). Lunches in the dusky and dusty workmen’s shed were surprisingly jolly affairs and where I learned most of the Italian I have since forgotten. I would like to say that they involved steaming tureens of ribollita washed down with tumblers of rough local wine, followed by an argument about the correct time of year to eat lampredotto, and then a siesta, but I can’t remember. Let’s agree that’s what happened.
SERVES 4–6
4 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, roughly chopped
2 celery sticks, trimmed and finely chopped
2 carrots, diced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
400g/14oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
400g/14oz can chopped tomatoes
1 bay leaf
300g/10½oz stale bread, roughly torn
1 glass of (rough local) red wine
1.5 litres/generous 1½ quarts dark chicken stock,
or good vegetable stock
250g/9oz cavolo nero, de-stemmed and roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
To serve
Your best olive oil
Parmesan cheese
Heat the oil in a large pan and gently fry the root vegetables and garlic until softened – about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the beans, tomatoes, bay leaf, bread and wine, and simmer for 5 minutes, then add the stock. Bring back to a simmer and leave to tick over for a further 20 minutes until thickened.
Add the cavolo nero and simmer to desired cuisson. If you like it fresh and crunchy, just a couple of minutes. I prefer it well cooked in this instance so would cook it for more like 10–15 minutes. Your dinner, your call.
Serve with a profligate amount of olive oil, a good dusting of Parmesan, and pepper and salt as required.
Extract credit: ‘Every Last Crumb’ by James Ramsden (Pavilion Books). Illustrations by Ellie Edwards.
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