I love the Catholic vision of redemption: it is both hopeful and practical. We're not wasted, ruined creatures dwelling among snow-covered dung hills and waiting to slip off this material world like a discarded candy wrapper.
We toil and sweat in a valley of tears, yes. But what exists, God created. What God created, He loves. What God loves, He does not waste. Looking at our brokenness, God says, "I will make all things new," not "I will make all new things."
He's a God of the crumbs and scraps, the One who gives us miracles that both reveal His divine supremacy over nature, and that also leave us with leftovers (cf Matthew 14:20). He repurposes the most ordinary stuff of earth, like bread and wine, into the extraordinary and sublime.
Pain perdu is a great sign of this Catholic vision of redemption. "Lost bread" is seemingly good for nothing—too hard to be usable, too late to be what it was made to be, too late to fulfill its purpose. But what could be waste becomes, with the creativity and openness that sparks from true hunger, something new and wonderful.
Pain perdu remains bread. But when the lush cream and eggs pour over it, and the sweetness saturates and revives every stale crumb, the lost bread is restored. But it's not restored to be only what it was originally made to be—now it's something even more glorious.
Lost, found, restored, glorified.
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This is an old pain perdu recipe from the 1901 Picayune cookbook, copied here from New Orleans Magazine.
Ingredients
8 slices dry French bread (or brioche or baguette), 1 inch thick, one to two days old
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups cream
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Pinch nutmeg
3 tablespoons butter
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
(You should know that the original recipe also called for brandy!)
Slice bread into rounds. In a large bowl, beat eggs, add milk and sugar, and mix thoroughly. Stir in vanilla and nutmeg. Place bread in mixture and soak for about two minutes. In a large skillet, heat half the butter to medium-hot. Drain four slices of bread and sauté about two minutes on each side until golden brown. Repeat with remaining butter and bread slices. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar – a small strainer works best for sifting and sprinkling the sugar. Serves 4.
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