As Passover draws to a close (awww, the crowd sighs in unison), I find myself with an abundance of matzo. I stocked my pantry with the crispy, unleavened cracker in a pre-holiday hysteria, but now, here I am with too much matzo and too little time. It’s T-minus two days until the end of Passover, and though I can continue to enjoy the bread long after Saturday, where’s the fun in that? Matzo is one of those foods that really only makes sense—and somehow tastes better?—in context. So it’s full speed ahead from here on out as I vow to leave no matzo behind.
I could, of course, just eat sheet after sheet of naked matzo. It’s crumbly and flaky and totally fine. Or I could think up strange new ways to fold the cracker into my cooking. It’ll be the latter, for sure. Matzo pizza is great, as is matzo lasagna; classics I turn to each spring. But aren’t there even more ways to repurpose that matzo wiling away on the shelf? Of course there are. Here are just a few ideas:
Pasta who? Use sheets of matzo and layer them into casserole dishes. Stuff the in-between with whatever your unleavened heart desires. Here are but two suggestions. One recommends calling up some ground lamb and plenty of spices; the other invites spinach and feta to the table. Both are filling and hearty and will probably set you back half a box (which is a good thing, remember?).
To know matzo is to know matzo brei, its eggy iteration. For many, brei is a Sunday morning staple: bits of cracker crumbled into a scrambled egg bath, smushed into a patty and gently pan-fried like a matzo-laden pancake. These two twists take the classic formula and give it some oomph. You can go Spanish or sweet, but you can’t go wrong.
Now here are two instances of matzo usage that really push the limits of creativity. But hey, who’s complaining? On one hand, we’ve got a sweet and crunchy granola all mixed up with bits of date and fig and tossed into a friendly bowl of yogurt and jam. And on the other are chilaquiles, a salsa-filled breakfast delight. Just please, don’t forget the fried egg.
How do you make do with all those mountains of matzo? Tell us how you fare in the comments below.
Written by: Valerio Farris
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