Bread is one of my greatest joys in Switzerland.

The selection is prodigious. There are regional breads (like Bernerbrot), breads for Sundays (like Zopf), holiday breads (like Grittibänz), breads for rivers (like Aarebrot (the bread, not the man)) and even unique breads for different branches of the same supermarket (like Migros' Bubenbergbrot). More about Swiss bread here.

And I want to try them all.

And also continue eating the ones that I have tried and really love.

(Quick shout out to Ängelibrot, Johanna's Cuchaule (a saffron bread from Fribourg), and the Holzofenrbrot from the Palézieux bakers at the Saturday market)

I am constantly overestimating how much bread I can comfortably (and occasionally slightly uncomfortably) eat.

That means recipes like this, which helped me use up three extra half loaves. And gave me an excuse to drink half a bottle of wine on a weeknight. Win win.

Even with numerous recipes for leftover bread, sometimes I still have to get rid of an old loaf or two. Fortunately, I live near Dählhölzli Zoo, where you can bring your stale (not moldy!) bread to be used for animal feed.

The recipe comes from a retro Betty Bossi cookbook called Gratins, Eintöpfe, Souffles, Aufläufe and was originally called Käseauflauf Moitié-Moitié.

leftover bread

100 ml white wine

5 pears, cored and sliced

150 g blue cheese, crumbled

150 g hard cheese, grated

Guss (to pour over)

2 eggs

300 ml milk

salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste

Preheat oven to 200 C / 400 F /gas mark 6

You will need a large casserole dish and a shallow bowl.

Fill the bowl with wine, then dip the bread. Layer this with the pears and cheese (saving a handful of grated hard cheese for the top) in your casserole dish.

In a large measuring cup, whisk together the guss. Pour this over the bread and pears, then sprinkle over the reserved cheese. 

Bake for 45 minutes, or until the cheese is golden and bubbly.

• There is no real rule on the cheese in this recipe. If you like, just use blue cheese. Or just hard cheese. Or a mix of both. Or something completely different.