Breaking bread in Tuscany

An Italian by birth, I am passionate about bread!  The kind of rustic bread that is baked on a hot stone to produce a crusty, domed outer crust and a moist interior full of irregular holes.  Perfect with food, this bread – which I call REAL bread – is also wonderful served with wine before a meal.  For me, when the bread is good, the food is somehow less important.

My recent trip to Tuscany and Florence demonstrated just that point.  I experienced the whole gamut … from absolute perfection to absolute imperfection!  And – get this – even though I ate lots of good bread – I didn’t gain an ounce.

Personally, I prefer the bread I described above, but in Tuscany, the typical bread dough has no salt.  This takes some getting used to, since most of us have always tasted bread that has salt as an ingredient.  However, when in Tuscany …

Tuscan Bread Recipe

Ingredients

6 1/8 cups Bread Flour
60 gr Baker’s Yeast
Pinch of Sugar
Water

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast in half a glass of lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar.
2. Sieve the flour, add the dissolved yeast, knead and add water
(enough to obtain a smooth and elastic dough.)
3.Cover with a clean and dry dishcloth and let it rest for 6 hours.
4.Knead the dough well and split into 5 balls. Trace diagonal lines on the top.
5.Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220 Celsius or 428 Fahreneit)for about 40 minutes
until the surface is golden and crusty.

If you prefer a heartier bread, with a dash of salt, then this recipe for Italian bread rolls might be more to your tasting:

Italian Bread Rolls with Olive Oil

Ingredients
800 grams or 28 oz. Bread Flour
30 gr or 1oz Baker’s Yeast
1.5 cups tepid water
10 tblspns olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
One pinch of sugar

Method
1. Dissolve the yeast in half a glass of lukewarm water with a touch of sugar.
2. Mix 3 oz (80 gr) of flour with the dissolved yeast then knead carefully until you get a smooth, soft dough with small surface bubbles.
3. Make a ball with the dough. Put the remaining flour on a surface and make a well then put dough ball in the middle of it, cover everything with a dishcloth
and let it rest for 5 hours.
4. Dissolve the salt in half a glass of lukewarm water.
5. Slowly mix the dough with the flour, adding carefully the water, the dissolved salt and the oil.
6. When the dough is smooth, elastic and with some bubbles on the surface make a ball, cover it with a dishcloth and let it rest for 3 hours.
7. Split the dough in 10 parts and form 10 bread rolls.
8. Bake for 30 minutes in the lower part of a pre-heated oven at 250 degrees celsius (482 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Serve with good quality olive oil, a bowl of olives , local cheese and a glass of local red wine.

The Italians’ passion for bread is best summed up in this well-touted phrase:

Senza il Pane, tutta diventa orfano

Loosely translated, means that bread is a foundation of life!  More literally, it means that without bread, everybody becomes an orphan!

To read more about Tuscany, click here