In the old kitchens of the Italian South, bread was never lightly discarded; it’s always been too important: ordinary loaves were used up once they had gone stale, while harder breads, like pane biscottato and friselle, baked or toasted a second time, were made on purpose to keep for weeks, even months.
Out of that thrift, across parts of Campania, Puglia, and Basilicata, country people worked out related ways of softening a hard piece of bread with a little water and dressing it with whatever the garden and the coast could spare, turning it into one of the most refreshing suppers of the season. And this is how acquasale was born.
