The biggest reason I love going to San Diego’s Little Italy Mercato is that I get to meet the people who are creating the food — the farmers, owners, and bakers who are passionate about their businesses. The food sold at the market is local, and it’s real food with real ingredients you can pronounce and are familiar with. One business that sells their products at the market is Panache Pantry, a maker of all natural, gourmet bread crumbs that contain no fillers or preservatives. They caught my eye one day when samples were being given out of vanilla ice cream topped with Panache bread crumbs, which sounds a bit odd but tastes delicious. From salads and fruit to cookies and garlic bread, the bread crumbs can jazz up many dishes and foods.
Using their pumpkin cajun flavored bread crumbs, I adapted Panache Pantry’s recipe for twice baked sweet potatoes and made sweet & spicy sweet potato bowls:
I also used the pumpkin cajun breadcrumbs to spice up some roasted chickpeas:
Another way I love incorporating the bread crumbs into a dish is by adding Panache Pantry’s whole wheat vintage Sicilian bread crumbs to zucchini parmesan:
Panache makes the following kinds of bread crumbs:
- Traditional Vintage Sicilian
- Zucchini Rosemary
- Pumpkin Cajun
- Whole Wheat Vintage Sicilian
Would you like to try out Panache Pantry’s bread crumbs? Then I have a giveaway for you! One reader will win 2 bags of bread crumbs of their choice.
How to enter to win: If you have Facebook, visit Panache’s page and show them some love by hitting ”like” (If you’re not a Facebook user, skip this part). Then comment on this post telling me what recipe or food you’d like to try adding the bread crumbs to. The contest will be open for a week, and then the lovely owners of Panache will select the reader whose idea they like best. I’ll be announcing the winner next Tuesday.
Below are the recipes for the dishes I mention above:
Sweet & Spicy Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 medium sweet potatoes
- 2 TBSP [light] butter
- 1/4 cup Panache Pantry Pumpkin Cajun bread crumbs
- 1 TBSP + 1 TSP brown sugar
- 1/8 TSP nutmeg
- 1/2 TSP cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Place sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and bake until tender, about an hour.
- Remove from oven and let cool.
- Split potatoes, remove the flesh, and place in a large bowl.
- Add butter, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon to the bowl, and mix together well.
- Evenly distribute the sweet potatoes into 4 bowls. Top each bowl with 1 TBSP of bread crumbs.
Nutrition
- 1 can of garbanzo beans (about 1 2/3 cups)
- 1 1/2 TBSP olive oil
- 2 TBSP Panache Pantry Pumpkin Cajun bread crumbs
- 1/2 TSP salt
- 1/2 TSP paprika
- 1/2 TSP garlic powder
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then place in a bowl.
- Add the olive oil, salt, paprika and garlic powder. Toss well to coat.
- Spread the chickpeas on a baking sheet and cook for about 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven, stir the chickpeas, then sprinkle the bread crumbs on top. Return back to oven and bake until crispy, 10-15 minutes.
Zucchini Parmesan
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 medium zucchini thinly sliced
- 1/2 TSBP olive oil
- 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/4 TSP salt
- 1/8 TSP pepper
- 2 TBSP Panache Pantry Whole Wheat Sicilian bread crumbs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
- Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the zucchini to the pan. Season with salt and pepper, and let the zucchini cook for around 7 minutes, or until tender.
- Spread zucchini in an 8x11 baking pan. Pour marinara sauce over top, then add the shredded cheese. Top the dish off with the bread crumbs.
- Cook until cheese is bubbly and dish begins to brown, around 20 minutes.
Hi Nicole!!!!
These look great! Thanks for directing me here!!! I want to try these breadcrumbs over oven toasted broccoli! With a little olive oil, garlic and parmigiana it would add a nice crunch!
Thanks for the recipe!!! Will try! xo
I have a delicious pumpkin soup recipe that I would like to top off with the pumpkin bread crumbs!
i would love to add butter to the breadcrumbs and sprinkle them over cauliflower (cooked) then bake for ten minutes thanks for showing me these breadcrumbs
I would like to try sprinkling the bread crumbs over shrimp scampi.
I would like to try the zucchini rosemary crumbs on the outside of lightly fried garlic polenta squares.
I would love to try the sweet and spicy sweet potato recipe you shared!
I would like to use the breadcrumbs with fried cauliflower with cheese (optional).
Homemade Mac and cheese topped with pumpkin breadcrumbs put in the oven and bake!
i would love to try the whole wheat vintage sicilian on a classic eggplant parmesan
Sprinkling bread crumbs over vanilla ice cream sounds interesting!
I’d like to try the Sicilian bread crumbs over asparagus.
These all sound delicious! I would probaly ground the Whole Wheat Vintage Sicilian bread crumbs up and mix them with ground turkey to make healthy meatballs. I would pan sear for color and then bake the rest of the way. Yum!