It’s worth everything to eat freshly-made foccacia di Recco

I tasted focaccia di Recco for the first time in the town of Recco on the Ligurian coast of Italy.  I remember it well because our two boys were really young at the time.  We had been to Genova for the weekend and were on our way back to France.  The boys were sleeping soundly in their car-seats as we were zooming along the motorway, when we saw the sign for the exit to Recco coming up in front of it.  My husband said, “We HAVE to get some Focaccia di Recco!” and swerved around a truck and onto the exit ramp.  With the kids sleeping in the car, we couldn’t really park and enjoy a leisurely snack of hot cheesy bread, so I jumped out of the car on a very narrow street near a bakery to get some focaccia.  He had to leave because the street was so narrow, you couldn’t even double-park, then proceeded to get lost in the winding roads of the town.  I ended up eating nearly all the focaccia, as it’s so delicious when it’s hot that it’s difficult to stop, and because of the fact that it took him about 3/4 of an hour to find his way back again.  I vow to this day that it was my survival instinct kicking in so that I didn’t starve after being abandoned.  At least the kids didn’t wake up so he didn’t need to share what was left.

An illuminating idea to be forgiven for past scoffing sins

I had never thought of making the focaccia at home until the Cucina Conversations blogging group that I’m a part of decided that November’s theme would be bread (Yes, I’m running a little late.  Blame it on holiday madness,…………or that the cat ate my homework).  I had the sudden illumination that I could finally get my husband to forgive me for my focaccia-eating madness all those years ago, and make him some at home!

It’s not easy to make, but it’s worth trying

I can’t pretend that it’s incredibly easy to make, but if you don’t panic and remain very Zen when you’re stretching out the dough, all will be fine.  As you see from the awful photo above, it needs to stretch so thinly that you can nearly see through it.  I took that photo of the dough by holding the camera in one hand and trying desperately not to let the dough get huge holes in it while holding it up with the other.  It’s much easier to stretch it out if you use half Manitoba flour and half all-purpose flour.  If you can’t get Manitoba flour in your part of the world, you can also use just all-purpose flour and use  a rolling pin to get the dough as thin as possible.

Notes on making foccacia di Recco

If you can’t find the creamy Italian Crescenza cheese, you could  try to use Stracchino.  I saw a few recipes online that said that that’s a good substitution.  If you can’t get either, then try a soft cheese that melts well. Also, when you read the recipe, do believe your eyes: there is no yeast in it, even though it is a bread.   I didn’t forget to write it in the recipe.  When I made it, I coasted around the internet to check that it was really the case, as I thought I’d forgotten to write it down!

When you place the top layer of dough on, rip a few holes in it to let the steam escape.  This is rather ironic, as you will have just been trying NOT to rip holes in it while stretching it.  It’s all about having the holes in the right places.

Below you can see a serving suggestion for Focaccia di Recco.  It is delicious on its own, but eaten hot with with some raw ham, tomatoes, and lamb’s lettuce salad or arugula on top of it makes it divine!

If you would like a more bread-like focaccia, try this recipe for focaccia di Leonarda.

This post is part of a Cucina Conversations theme for this month on Italian bread.  You should check out the links below and fin out how to make these delicious staples at home!

Carmen from The Heirloom Chronicles made beautiful Rosette Bread Rolls

Francesca from Pancakes And Biscotti showed us how to make bread that is typically eaten in Emilia-Romagna called Tigelle

Daniela from Le Dani Gourmet baked some Focaccia Genovese

Travel Photo Of The Week

This is not actually Recco, since we didn’t get to stop there really, but it is in Liguria: in San Remo to be exact.  The houses in Liguria in the older part of the towns are all beautifully coloured like these ones.  Just over the border in France, as far as Antibes see the same types of houses.  After all, Nice was actually part of Liguria until Napolean III did a big real estate deal in the 1800’s and got it as a present from the Savoy Kingdom for helping them with some troublesome neighbours.

by Lisa Watson

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Focaccia di Recco

How to make Focaccia di Recco: Cheese stuffed bread from Liguria, Italy

Course bread

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 4 - 6 people

Ingredients

• 250 g All-purpose flour 8.8 oz
• 250 g Manitoba Flour 8.8 oz
• 260 ml Water 1 cup
• 50 ml Olive Oil 1/4 cup
• 10 g Salt 2 tsp
• 500 g Crescenza or Stracchino Cheese 17.6 oz

Instructions

• Using a standing mixer, knead all the ingredients except the cheese for 10- 15 minutes.  the dough must be smooth and elastic.  Add a little more water if it looks dry.
• Form the dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap or a tea-towel.  Leave  to rest for 1 hour.
• Cut the ball in half and form two balls.  Leave to rest for 15 minutes.
• Grease a cookie tray with olive oil.
• Heat the oven to 250 C (500 F)
• Take the dough balls one at a time.  Gently stretch out the dough on a floured surface until it is the size of the cookie-tray.  Try not to rip any holes in it!  It must become so thin that you can see light through it.
• Gently drape it onto the cookie tray.
• Cut the cheese into at least 20 roughly equally-sized lumps, and place them evenly over the dough.
• Stretch out the second ball of dough to the same size.
• Place it carefully on top of the cheese.
• Press the edges together and cut off any bits of dough that are overlapping the tray.
• Sprinkle with more salt and with olive oil.
• Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until the dough is golden-brown.

Easter is a big deal in Italy

I realize that Easter has come and gone, but the recipes linger on.  I spent Easter in Italy for the first time ever (at least that I can remember).  I think every year on this long weekend, we’ve gone everywhere but Italy, until this year.  I was delighted to discover that Easter is a pretty big deal in Italy, with everyone giving you “auguri” (wishes) from the barista in the cafes you go to to get a coffee fix, to bus drivers, to friends and family you see. The biggest delight (at least for me) is that there is a whole slew of traditional recipes that go with this period of the year. many of them include eggs, to symbolize Spring and new growth.  When I got home again, I decided to make a savoury cheese bread called Crescia Pasqualina, which heralds from the Marche region of Italy, which borders on Umbria to the west and the Adriatic Sea to the East.  It’s an area I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting yet, but I have heard that it’s very beautiful (just like most of Italy!).

This cheese bread is easier to make than it looks

If you can make pizza dough, you can easily make this cheese bread.  I used a panettone wrapper for holding it.  I have a few of them that were given to me by a lovely friend after we did an ill-fated panettone-making class together.  I’ve never had the courage to make panettone at home, but they’re perfect for making the Crescia look spectacular!  You can also rise it in a large cake-tin or a large souffle dish, and it will work well too. The photo above is when after you knead the dough and put it in the baking dish, and the photo below is after three hours of rising.  I loved making this as it’s really fun to watch it rising so much in such a short amount of time.  Yup….even better than watching grass grow or paint dry.

How to eat crescia bread

I made this recipe with a standing mixer, but you can absolutely do it by hand.  Just mix all the ingredients in a bowl, then turn the dough out onto a floured surface to knead it. The Crescia Pasqualina is generally eaten with cold cuts of meat, boiled eggs and different cheeses.  It makes a great aperitif tray to go with a glass of Prosecco or Spritz.

This recipe is a modified version of one taken from L’Enciclopedia Della Cucina Italiana.

This post is part of the monthly Cucina Conversations group I hang out in on the web.  This month we’re bringing you mouthwatering Easter recipes which are traditionally eaten during the Easter period in Italy. I was very happy to read about all these different traditional recipes as I’m not very familiar with what gets eaten in Italy during this period. Go check them out!

Flavia from Flavia’s Flavours with Focaccia Veneta

Daniela from Le Dani Gourmet with Chocolate and Rice Pie (Torta Di Becchi)

Carmen from The Heirloom Chronicles with crunchy Tarelli All’Uovo

Marialuisa from Marmellata di Cipolle with la Pitta Chijna di Pasquetta

Francesca from Pancakes e Biscotti baked a very festive Easter Pie (Torta Pasquallina)

Happy belated Easter, everyone!

By Lisa Watson

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Crescia Pasqualina: Italian cheese bread

Here's an easy recipe to make Crescia Pasqualina (Savoury Cheese Bread) from Italy, which is eaten with ham, boiled eggs and cheese in Umbria and the Marche region during the Easter celebration. 

Course bread

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Rising time 3 hours hours

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 550 g All-purpose flour 1 lb 4oz, 3 2/3 cups
• 5 g Dried Yeast 1 tsp
• 100 g Grated Parmesan Cheese 1 cup
• 150 ml Milk 2/3 cup
• 10 g Honey 2 tsp
• 10 g Salt 2 tsp
• 50 ml Olive Oil 3 1/2 Tbsp
• 5 Eggs
• 100 g Pecorino Cheese 3 oz

Instructions

• In a standing mixer fitted with a dough-hook, blend together the flour, Parmesan cheese and yeast.
• Add the honey, milk, oil and salt and begin to knead the mixture.
• Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl and add them to the dough.
• Knead the dough for at least 5 minutes, until it becomes elastic and smooth.  If it is sticky, add flour 2 Tbsp at a time.
• While the dough is kneading, chop the Pecorino cheese into small cubes.  Grease a large souffle dish, or cake-tin. Turn on the light in the oven and put the rack into the lower third position.
• Form the smooth dough into a flattish ball and place it in the greased container.
• Place the container in the oven for leave it to rise for 3 hours.
• After the rising time, take the container out of the oven and heat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
• Cook the bread for 30 - 40 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean with no dough sticking to it.

Notes

The bread is best eaten the day it is made, but can keep for 1 - 2 days if wrapped tightly in aluminium foil.

Hot cross buns, chocolate eating, and musings about the Easter Bunny

Easter is nearly here.  I can hear the hoppity-hop of little bunny paws as they stuff their baskets with Easter eggs…..well, there must be more than one Easter Bunny, right?  Otherwise how would he get the Easter eggs to all the kids on time?  You can’t tell me that he does the Santa trick!  He doesn’t have a sleigh, OR reindeer!  Anyway, aside from eating way too much chocolate, another thing I love to eat around the Easter holidays are hot cross buns. I’m not sure why hot cross buns and actually called “hot cross buns”, as they don’t have to be hot when they are eaten, though they do taste awfully good with butter melting into them when they’re straight out of the oven.  The cross is obvious.  I’m sure it has religious (or pagan) significance, but I’m not going to get into that stuff here.  Just make the hot cross buns and enjoy them, and don’t worry about the symbolism behind them!

Multi-purpose rolls

This recipe comes from my mother.  When I was in New Zealand this time last year (yes, it’s taken me an entire year to get this recipe up!), I made them without the spices and brushed the tops of the buns with milk before cooking them to give them a nice shiny top, and they came out fabulously as dinner rolls.  So, not only can this recipe be used for Easter, but you can make the rolls for Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or just for the heck of it, if you like.

A quick recipe

The hot cross bun dough only goes through one rising, which also means that they’re quick to make (well, quick in making-bread terms).  You can have them on the table in only 2 1/2 – 3 hours from when you weigh out the flour to when you take them out of the oven.  The photo above is before the rising, and the photo below is after, just to give you and idea of how much they should grow.

Hints and tricks from experience

I actually forgot to put the sultanas in when I made these as one of my sons ate the ones that I’d weighed out in anticipation of adding them to the dough, and I didn’t notice.  So, I can tell you after scientific testing, that they taste good also without the sultanas, just not as sweet. The cross is an optional extra.  It doesn’t add anything to the taste.  You can do it just to prove that the rolls are indeed hot cross buns.  I think next time I would just brush milk over them and forget about the cross.  As you can see in the photo below, unless you have a piping bag that you can use, making the cross with the edge of a teaspoon can be quite messy.

So, I wish you all a very happy, and non-rainy Easter full of good things to eat (we’re having a leg of New Zealand lamb, of course!).

Travel Photo of the Week

This is Whangarei Heads, a small peninsula which juts out from the East coast of New Zealand near the town of Whangarei.  I spent a lot of time here when I was growing up, getting into all sorts of trouble with a friend whose parents owned a farm just across the peninsula from where this photo was taken on top of a monolith of craggy towers called Mount Manaia. It takes about an hour or so to wend your way up the slopes through the forest (where once I got lost with the aforementioned friend: a story for another time). The view from the top, as you can see, is spectacular!

By Lisa Watson

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Hot cross buns

An easy and quick recipe for home-made Hot Cross buns from New Zealand.  

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Rising time 2 hours hours

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 300 g All-purpose flour 2 cups
• 10 g Dry Yeast 2 Tbsp
• 50 g Sugar 4 Tbsp
• 1 tsp Salt
• 250 ml cold water 1 cup
• 250 ml boiling Water 1 cup
• 50 g Butter 2 Tbsp
• 2 Eggs
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 4 tsp Mixed Spice
• 500 g All-purpose flour 3 3/4 cups
• 50 g Sultanas (or currants) 1/2 cup

Instructions

• Mix the first lot of flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix.
• Add the cold water, then the boiling water and mix until smooth. Leave for 2 - 3 minutes.
• Add the second lot of flour, the cinnamon and mixed spice. Mix, then add the sultanas.
• Knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth.  Keep sprinkling flour on the dough if it is sticky.
• Put a clean tea-towel over the bowl and leave on the bench for 15 minutes.
• Line two trays with baking paper, then break off pieces of dough approximately the size of an egg. Roll them into balls and place them on the trays, spacing them so that there is room for them to expand.
• Leave to rise for  2 hours until they double in size.
• Heat the oven to  200ºC (375ºF).  If you would like the buns to be shiney on top, brush them with milk. To make the crosses, put 2 tbsp of flour into a cup.  Dribble water in and stir until a thick paste forms.  Use a piping bag or the side of a teaspoon to draw the crosses on top of each bun.
• Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until the tops of the buns are golden-brown.

Discovering the focaccia success secret

I had the pleasure of watching Leonarda, a friend of mine from Puglia, make focaccia last week.  I had tried over the years to make focaccia but for some reason, no matter what I tried, the focaccia always came out hard like a plank of wood. Leonarda very kindly told me that there must be something wrong with me as it was so easy to make, and then actually showed me just how easy it really IS to make!  I don’t know what I was doing wrong before, but now I’m churning out the sort of focaccia that makes my kids ask me to cook more of it while they’re eating the focaccia I just took out of the oven. Now, that’s a great measure of success!

Making focaccia by eye with an Italian pro

So, I’ve discovered that focaccia is actually very easy to make, and very forgiving of mistakes as well.  Leonarda showed me that she makes it by eye. I got her to weigh things as she was going so that I could write it up for you, which she did, but as she said, if you know the consistency of the dough you need at the end, you can just add a little more flour or water to get it that way.  With practice, I hope I can do that! I’ve taken a lot of photos for you so that you can see the focaccia at each stage in the recipe.

Making focaccia is less time-consuming than it seems

The fabulous thing about making focaccia is that you don’t have to do it all in the same day.  You can make the initial dough in the afternoon, then throw it in the fridge for the night, or you can start in the morning and leave it rising on the bench for about 5 hours until you get to the next step.  The recipe I’ve written out for you below is the one with the overnight rising.  This works great for me as it means that we can have focaccia with lunch with no problem…I’m certainly not getting up at 2 in the morning just so we can have it at midday.  I like to cook, but not that much!

What to use as toppings

There is only one downside to focaccia: it really needs to be eaten on the day it’s made.  It goes stale quickly.  Even by the next day, it’s not that good.  I haven’t had a problem with this yet.  It seems to disappear just about before it gets to the table! Your imagination is the only limit to what you put on top.  You can also make it with nothing on top: just olive oil and a little salt.  Here, I used cherry tomatoes and oregano on one, and green olives on the other.  I’ve eaten delicious ones with various toppings such as caramelized onions, black olives, slices of tomato, and also ones with cheese in the middle.  Just don’t overload the focaccia: one or two sprinklings of a topping is plenty.

And the last word on focaccia

If you don’t have a standing mixer, you can do this easily by hand, as it doesn’t need much kneading, so don’t let that stop you!

Thanks to Leonarda for showing me the true focaccia path.  Time to go and make one….my stomach is growling just looking at these photos.  Try it yourself!  I’d love to here how it goes!

For a stuffed focaccia from Liguria in Italy, try out this recipe here

By Lisa Watson

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Leonarda's Focaccia

Learn how to make focaccia just like a real Italian from Puglia does with this easy recipe

Course bread

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Resting time 1 day day

Total Time 1 day day 35 minutes minutes

Servings 2 focaccia

Ingredients

• 500 g Flour
• 6 g dehydrated Yeast
• 20 g Potato Flakes
• 300 ml Water
• 10 g Salt 2 tsp
• 250 g Cherry tomatoes optional
• 2 - 3 tsp Oregano optional
• 100 g Olives optional

Instructions

Day 1

• Put the yeast, potato flakes and flour into the bowl of your standing mixture.
• Add the water and the salt.
• Knead for 5 minutes until the dough comes together. Add a little more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the dough seems dry and doesn't stick together well.
• Put the dough in a clean bowl lightly oiled with olive oil and cover the bowl with a lid or transparent film.
• Put in the fridge overnight.

Day 2

• Take the dough out of the fridge and leave on the bench for an hour to warm up.
• Oil two oven dishes with olive oil, or one cookie tray with This time, I used pie pans that were 25 cm in diametre, but you can make them square or rectangle, depending what you have in your cupboard.
• Cut the dough into two roughly equal portions. (Or leave in 1 piece for the cookie-tray)
• Gently push the dough with your fingers out into the shape you want it, turning it over every now and then. It should be about  1 - 1 1/2 cm ( about 1/2 an inch) high when you have finished.
• Put it in the pan you are using.
• Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and press gently them lightly into the dough at regular intervals.  Sprinkle with oregano.  Do the same for olives if you are using those, without the oregano.
• Cover with a teatowel and leave on the kitchen bench to rise for 2 - 3 hours until puffy.
• Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
• Sprinkle the focaccia with a few tablespoons of olive oil and splash with a 2 - 3 tsp water water (this helps a nice crust to form).
• Bake for about 20 -25 minutes, until the top is golden-brown and the tomatoes are slightly charred.

Notes

The focaccia is best eaten fresh on the day it is made, but if you have leftovers, keep them in an air-tight container.  Before eating them, sprinkle them with water and put them in the oven at 200°C (400°F) for 5 - 10 minutes.  It will come out as though it is freshly made!

The strawberries had a better party to go to this year

Well, maybe you all actually know how to make bruschetta, but even if you do, I hope that this post will remind you of it since there are loads of wonderful tomatoes and basil coming into season right around now…..well, at least there should be.  Thanks to the never-ending Winter, and a Spring that only ducks can love, fruit and vegetables are showing up to the party late, or hardly at all.  I saw the strawberries pop in quickly for a few minutes, but they must’ve decided that they had somewhere better to be, as they jumped out the bathroom window and were off before I could really sink my teeth into them!  Anyway, the tomatoes are dribbling in slowly, so I thought I’d grab them before they try to vanish to the Maldives, or wherever tomatoes go when they’re cold, and actually do something with them.  And, what better thing to make with fresh tomatoes than bruschetta!

When the tomatoes start to ripen; it’s time to make bruschetta!

The tomatoes in the photo above come from Southern Italy and are called Picadilly tomatoes.  I’m able to buy them from my local supermarket for about a month or two right now, but they disappear in the Summer.  They’re super red inside and very tasty. Got to make the most of them while they last!! (I’m not divulging my supply otherwise anyone who lives near me might go and buy them all and leave none for me!!)

How to pronounce “bruschetta” so that Italians won’t snigger

Quite a few people have asked me to give everyone a pronunciation lesson on the word “bruschetta” since I’m writing about it, so if you know this already, feel free to skip the next paragraph.  If you don’t, you will soon be able to order (or make your own!) bruschetta in an Italian restaurant and have the waiter (if they’re Italian) ask you where in Italy you are from. 🙂  Or, you’ll least know deep down inside that you’re right even if the (non-Italian) waiter wrongly corrects your pronunciation.  Just don’t start a fist fight over it…..gloat quietly and gobble your bruschetta.  So, here it is  “bruschetta” is NOT said with the “ch” like “bru-shetta”, it’s pronounced “BrusKetta”.  There, I said it.  I hope all you pedantic pronunciation people are now able to sleep better tonight. 😉 Actually in Italian, whenever you see a “che”  or “chi” the “c” is pronounced as a hard “k”, and just to be confusing, when you see  “ce” or “ci” it’s pronounced as a “ch” like in “FranCEsco”.  Right, enough already!  This isn’t a language blog, it’s all about the food, for goodness sake! Sorry to go off on a tangent there!

Just one note: Make sure you use “rustic” bread otherwise the oil and tomatoes will just turn the bread into a soggy mess!

There are many variations of bruschetta.   You can also try this one with radicchio and speck. The one I’m showing you here is the traditional one you find in many restaurants in Italy.  They make a delicious, very quick appetizer for when you have un-invited (or even invited) guests!  They’ll love you for it!

By Lisa Watson

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Tomato Bruschetta

How to make Italian bruschetta with tomatoes, how to pronounce the word "bruschetta".

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 3 minutes minutes

Total Time 13 minutes minutes

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

• 1 loaf Rustic bread
• 6 - 8 Tomatoes
• Olive oil
• 1 Garlic clove
• Salt to taste
• Basil a few leaves

Instructions

• Heat the grill or bbq to as hot as you can.
• Chop the tomatoes into cubes.
• Cut the bread into thick slices and place them on a baking tray if putting into the oven grill.
• Peel the garlic clove and rub it on one side of each piece of bread.
• Evenly pour a little olive oil over each piece of bread.
• Place under the grill or on the bbq grate and wait until they brown.  DON'T LEAVE THEM FOR A SECOND!
• Flip them over and brown them lightly on the underside.
• Cover with the chopped tomatoes, sprinkle with salt and a little bit of olive oil.
• Decorate with torn basil leaves.

Notes

To be eaten immediately.

Why I haven’t had the courage to make panettone at home

Panettone is a wonderful, fluffy, sweet, fruit-laden cake-like bread that is eaten in Italy at Christmas time. I just had the good fortune to be able to attend a weekend course on how to make it run by a fabulous baker called Marco Avidano who owns his own bakery in Chieri. Now, before you rub your hands in fervent anticipation to start making a panettone as soon as you’ve finished reading this, just sit back down and let me tell you something.  So, my friend, Giulia, and I walk into the course, and the first thing the baker who is teaching the class says is, “This recipe is almost impossible to make at home, even though I am presenting you with a simplified version of what we make in my bakery.”  Well, we promptly left and went to the wine bar in Eataly, where the course was being held, for 2 days instead. No, just kidding!  We sighed sadly and then went on to listen avidly to the very talented Marco for two intense days. The course was incredibly interesting, and I learnt a huge amount about making panettone.  The main reason that it is difficult to make it at home is that if you need a special kneading machine (which incidentally costs about 800 euros!).  If you try to use your Kitchen Aid, or similar mixer, you are likely to burn the engine (just ask Giulia if you don’t believe me: she has first-hand experience), plus the kneading of the dough using this type of mixer heats up the dough too much and pulls out the necessary fats that are needed to make the panettone taste so very good.

All the steps to making a fluffy panettone

The first afternoon was spent in a full-on lecture with us scribbling notes madly (I managed to fill up half a notebook by the end of the weekend, and that wasn’t because I was writing four words per page).  Marco took us through the process of making lievito madre (homemade yeast), which he uses to make his panettoni, which is a complicated subject all by itself without adding the whole panettone bit afterwards. He told us that before machines were made to knead the dough, it was impossible to make a panettone like you can buy in the shops today.  A different, less airy form existed, which is called pandolce, basically “sweet bread”, it had a consistency more like….yes, you guessed it….bread.

Even an expert baker can have their problems

The next tricky bit about making a panettone this way is that it takes about 5 days to do the whole process.  Who has five days (well, except for a baker who makes it for a living)???  Also, it’s very temperamental, so that if you don’t tend to your yeast animal EXACTLY 12 hours after you fed it last, it will pack a sad, and deflate, so then you have to throw the dough out and start again.  I saw this happen during the course, so I can attest that the dough is VERY “diva-ish”: Marco made 20 kg (yes, 20 KG!!!) of dough on Saturday.  He took it home overnight to care for it (and said he got up at 5 to feed it again), and then when he was driving back to Eataly, the yeast had a tantrum as it didn’t like the movement and the cold, and the dough fell completely.  As Marco knows his yeast inside out, as a backup he made an alternative batch during the night and this one survived so that we could continue with the panettone course.

Panettone dough has the personality of a celebrity diva

Marco told us that at his bakery he makes batches of 90 kg at a time (that’s a LOT of panettoni!).  During the rising period, he has his lackeys (the apprentice bakers) at the bakery, who work in shifts check on the rising dough frequently all through the night, like a nurse checks on an intensive care patient, and the moment it reaches the “right” stage, they call Marco, even if it’s 4 in the morning.  He then rushes to the bakery and carries out the next delicate steps.  He said that nobody, but NOBODY, else is allowed to touch the dough.  It’s that sensitive.  Thank goodness it’s not a person!!  Can you imagine dealing with someone with a personality like that all the time?

If you want the recipe, just let me know

Even during the baking, he hovered over the oven constantly, changing the temperature slightly even so often to allow the panettoni to cook properly.  The oven he used was also a super-duper one that injects humidity at the beginning to allow the dough to rise as much as possible (which is also why a cross is cut in the top before baking), and sucks it all out during the cooking process to allow a nice crisp crust to form. Now, after all that work, the panettone was really delicious, but I decided that maybe it’s just easier to cut out the middle man (i.e. all the work) to go to his bakery in Chieri (near Turin) and buy a ready-made one.  One of these days, I want to try it, but I have to work up the courage and take out insurance on my Kitchen Aid first in case I blow it up.  If anyone would like the recipe for lievito madre or this type of panettone, please do email me.  I will be very happy to send it to you.  As it’s so long and complicated, I won’t be putting it up on this site though.

I loved doing this course and I want to thank Marco Avidano for being such a great teacher, and Giulia, my passionate cooking friend, for coming to the course with me!

By Lisa Watson

Home-made bread-sticks are so much tastier than store-bought ones!

So, I know you’re going to say, “But, why make grissini (bread sticks) when I can buy perfectly good ones at the supermarket?”……why, indeed…..well, fresh homemade grissini are infinitely more delicious than store-bought, and anyway, it’s coming into Winter and on one of those rainy (or snowy, depending where you live) Sundays when you’ve got nothing much to do, this is a great way to spend some time.  It’s a fun bread project for kids too as it’s fast – well, in terms of general bread-making, it’s fast. The time it takes to make grissini as opposed to normal bread is like comparing the speed of a turtle with the speed of a snail. It’s all relative. You see the snail inching along and you’ll say, “Boy, look at that speedy turtle!”

Watch out after taking the bread-sticks out of the oven; they disappear!

Homemade grissini get even better the next day, or so I’m told. There never seem to be any left the day after they’re made.  You’ll see when you make these that they magically disappear as soon as you turn your back.  When you turn around again, all you see are a few crumbs littering the ground, and maybe, if you’re very lucky, a glimpse of the back of someone’s foot as they’re hoofing it out of the kitchen after stealing the breadsticks that they weren’t allowed to have yet as it was nearly time for lunch…..yes, I’m talking to you, you two boys who tornado our house on a regular basis! Yes, I know that “tornado” is not a verb, but it’s a good description of what happens to a room when my kids are left to play in it for 10 minutes.

The history of the humble bread-stick

It is controversially said that grissini were first invented just north of my adopted city of Torino in the 1600’s, but others vow that they were first developed in the 1400’s.  As nobody is still alive today from either of those centuries, we will never know for sure, but we can say for sure that they have been eaten in Northern Italy for a very, very long time.  A recipe that old has to be a good one, right?!!  In pretty much any restaurant you walk into in Italy (well in Turin at least: I can’t vouch for the whole of Italy), there are always grissini on the table, and we always say, “We’d better not eat too many or else we won’t be able to eat (make that scoff) everything else”, but then we do always eat too many as they’re so crunchy and yummy.

Ideas for making the bread-sticks your own

When you make grissini at home, you can personalize them to your taste: you can add cut up olives to the dough, or you can roll them in seeds, like poppy seeds or sesame seeds.  Just a note though, as you can see from the photo below, I very gently rolled my bread-sticks in sesame seeds before baking them, but when they came out of the oven, all the seeds had fallen off.  I think you need to roll them more assertively to make them stay on.  If anyone has success with this, please let me know.  In the end, they tasted great anyway, so it didn’t matter.

Just one more hint before you get to read (and hopefully try) the recipe.  You cannot “un-stretch” the dough once it’s stretched out, or roll it up in a ball and start again.  The grissini just won’t work.  So….be careful!  Try not to be too strong!

By Lisa Watson

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Home-made bread-sticks (Italian grissini)

Home-made bread-sticks (Italian grissini) taste so much better than store-bought ones.  Find the recipe on Italian Kiwi!

Ingredients

• 8 g Active dry yeast 2 1/4 tsp
• 2 Tbsp Flour
• 50 ml Water 4 Tbsp
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 500 g Flour 4 cups
• 230 ml Tepid water 1 cup
• 8 g Salt 1 1/2 tsp
• 50 ml Olive oil 3 Tbsp

Instructions

• I used a standing mixture to make the dough, but it can also be done by hand.

The first step:

• Mix together the yeast, 2 Tbsp flour, 50ml tepid water and 1 tsp sugar in a small bowl and leave for 20 minutes.

And then:

• Dissolve the salt in the second lot of water.
• Put the flour in the mixer bowl, then add the water and yeast mixture.  Start to mix them together using the dough hook (or your hands!).
• While the mixer is running, add the oil in a steady stream.
• Knead the dough for 7 - 10 minutes until it is elastic.
• Turn out onto a lightly floured bench. Flatten it with your hands to form a large rectangle (Don't pull at the dough too hard otherwise it will rip).
• Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with flour.
• Cover with plastic wrap and a teatowel, then leave it to rise for about an hour until it has doubled in bulk.
• Heat the oven to 200 C (400 F).
• Cut off strips of the dough and gently stretch them out to make the length of grissino that you desire.  If they break, don't try to stick them back together (it won't work!).
• At this point you can leave them as they are or roll them in sesame seeds or poppy seeds if you like.
• Lay them on a tray covered with baking paper.
• Bake for 15 -18 minutes, turning them over halfway through the cooking.
• I dare you not to eat them immediately once they come out of the oven!  The bread smell swirling through the air is overwhelmingly  good!

The dangers of eating Italian pizza

When I was a kid my mother would let me choose what we were going to have for dinner each year when my birthday rolled around.  I always, but ALWAYS chose pizza: every single birthday for years and years and years (if you don’t believe me, you can ask my Mum!).  Since then, I have been experimenting tirelessly on how the make the best crust. I thought I had found it years ago, until something incredible happened. I set foot in Italy and ate my first “real” pizza.  I can even tell you what and where it was. You know, it was one of those life-changing experiences for me. 🙂  Pizza Margherita from a back alley in Venice (no, not from a trash-bin!  I traveled on the cheap back then, but not that cheap!).

Away flew my cravings for Pizza Hut pizza with pineapple and ham like a dandelion in a tornado. How could I not have been eating this before? That started me on a culinary eating binge which took me all over Italy.  Pizza with gorgonzola and speck became my drug of choice, and from there I spiraled out-of-control into a whirlpool of madness, until I was brought up short by a potato and rosemary pizza thrust in front of me by a pizziaolo in Rome and finally realised that there was more to life than gorgonzola and speck. Those were dark, dark days. I’m afraid I don’t have a photo of Venice for you as I was there in the days when people walked the Earth without digital cameras or even cell-phones – not even the kind that didn’t take pictures.

The trick to making good pizza dough

You would think pizza dough is easy to make as it has so few ingredients, and it actually IS easy, but it is quite a long process.  It’s totally worth giving up a few hours of your time to do it though, as the results are fabulous! I found the answer to my searching for the perfect recipe when I stumbled across a wonderful website called Viva La Focaccia!. Vittorio puts up videos on how to make all sorts of bread doughs and pizza dough.  The site is all in Italian, but it is completely worth going to the video on how to make pizza dough to watch the steps, even if you don’t understand Italian.  I’ll leave you the link at the bottom of the page.

If you can get a stone to put in the oven to cook on, the dough comes out even more crispy/tender.

An important note: the dough already has enough salt in it.  There is no need to add salt to the tomato puree that you put on the crust.

By Lisa Watson

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Great Italian pizza dough

You would think pizza dough is easy to make as it has so few ingredients, and it actually IS easy, but it is quite a long process. It's totally worth giving up a few hours of your time to do it though, as the results are fabulous!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 6 minutes minutes

Total Time 16 minutes minutes

Servings 4 pizzas

Ingredients

• 500 g 00 grade flour. For even better dough, 400g 00 flour and 100g Manitoba flour. 1.75 - 2 cups
• 300 g Water approx. 1.2 cups
• 10 g Salt 3/4 Tbsp
• 1.5 g Active dry yeast 3/4 tsp

Instructions

• Mix the water and half the flour together for 2 minutes. Leave for 20 minutes to let the flour absorb some of the water.
• Add the yeast and mix, then add the salt. Then, add the rest of the flour. Knead the dough for 20 minutes. (This is where the Kitchen-Aid is VERY useful!). Form the dough into a ball and leave it on the bench for two hours, closed in a lightly oiled container. At this point, you can put the dough in the fridge and take it out the next day to continue (in fact, that makes the crust even better!).

  A note: for best results, the dough should be quite soft and almost too sticky to touch.
• Cut the dough into 4 even-sized pieces. Form each piece into a ball. At this point, if you can freeze the dough by putting each ball in a plastic bag in the freezer. To continue the process, take them out and follow the instructions below, allowing an extra hour for thawing.
• Put them into individual containers with lids, lightly brushing the inside of the containers with olive oil before doing so.
• Leave to rise for 4 -6 hours. If you want slower rising, you can put the containers in the fridge overnight (again, if you do another overnight fridge rise, the crust is EVEN better).
• One hour before you are ready to make the pizza turn on your oven to the hottest it can go and place the oven rack in the top-most position of the oven. If you have a pizza stone, even better! Heat that up in the oven at the same time.
• Gently ease the dough out onto a floured tray or pizza slice, trying to keep it intact. If you have square containers, the pizzas will be square (I discovered this from experience). Gently push the dough outwards with your fingers to make it pizza size. You will NOT need a rolling pin. This is the bit where you have to be very careful. If it is stretched too far, you can't make it go back to its original shape (also learned from experience!) . If you make a hole in it, it is very difficult to fix.
• Add a few tablespoons of tomato puree to the top of the dough, and spread it out on the pizza. The secret is not to use too much. It should just cover the pizza, not swamp it.

  Do not

  add salt as the crust already has enough in it.
• Sprinkle some bits of mozzarella on the pizza. Do not add too much cheese, otherwise you will end up with a greasy mess. Add other toppings you would like. If you want to make pizza Italian-style, do not add more than two after the tomato and mozzarella. If you want to put

  prosciutto crudo

  or rocket salad on, add it after the cooking.
• Slide the pizza into the oven and bake it for 6 minutes until the edges puff up and the cheese is bubbling.

Here's the link to the video Vittorio made:

• http://vivalafocaccia.com/2011/06/05/ricetta-pizza-napoletana-impasto-video/

Notes

A kitchen-Aid will give you the best results, but if you don't have one, do it by hand: you'll build up arm muscles and it will still come out delicious. A two-for-one deal! All the instructions here where mixing and kneading were involved were done in my mixer unless stated otherwise.