Wanted: Authentic italian bread recipe

[Debs]

I was at my local italian restaurant for tea yesterday & the table bread was

absolutely gorgeous :P, round- ish slices, good golden crust & of an almost

chewy texture (possibly due to olive oil being used?)

Does anyone have a recipe which would give similar results

Debs x

[Debs]

[goodlife]

Ohhh..Sounds nice.
Have you watched Hairy Bikers bakeation program?...it was on last night and they went to Italy. They did polenta bread and focaccia bread..both that I'm going to make soon.
I made bread like they did in the 'norway' part..white sourdough (very gelly like dough texture)with olive oil 'massaged' and poked on the surface... :P..and that came out very chewy.

oh..and to add..have a look at their focaccia in Iplayer..you could easily do that but leave the rosemary out if you don't like it and just use course sea salt and olive oil..roughly grounded black pepper is nice if you don't fancy rosemary.

[goodlife]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/b01gf74s... ;)

[BarriedaleNick]

I can vouch for that focaccia bread as it is almost identical to one I make - it is excellent for mopping up pasta sauce!!

[Debs]

Hi Goodlife,

Yes I'm watching it - those two are great together! v. entertaining, especially

Si King as he's a good geordie lad (not that I'm biased of course ;D)

Agree, the focaccia looked bellisimo (sp?)

Want to try to do that meself  ;)

Debs x

[Obelixx]

They're very entertaining and give good tips like slow rising periods for better bread but I do wish there was less travelogue at the start of each programme and more cooking.

I also did not see the point of spending so much time in Holland, which is gastronomically challenged to say the least, and so little in Belgium which is at the other end of the gastronomic spectrum.  And why, oh why, cook a Luxembourg recipe under the Atomium in Brussels and focaccia in Venice when they say themselves it's from the other side of the country?

[gazza1960]

Hi Debs,yes,Focaccia is a fav of mine and the following is one I make "but" with chopped olives and whole olives pocked in the top dough.
That said,theres no reason you cant just make it without the added bits and bobs.
Its a soft springy result with a fairly crisp crust its a good rip it and dip it bread dipped in Tomato sauces,or just eaten on its own with Garlic Butter spread on....or....top of my favs is buttered with Napoli Salami on it.







Gazza

[Lishka]

Debs!

My advice is to return to the restaurant and ask them how they made their beautiful, wonderful, memorable bread 8) ;D

And then, please, come here and give us the recipe

:D :D :D

Lish  :-*

[Debs]

Hi Lishka,

Good idea  ;D

It was seriously good so might be brazen  ask them!!

Debs x

[Obelixx]

Bit late perhaps but last year's Great British Bake Off featured a recipe for focaccia - scroll down to page 2 on here for it - http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/search?programmes[]=b013pqnm

[Gordonmull]

We used to make ciabatta in the bakery. Olive oil was used instead of bread fat. The actual recipe is lost in the pits of my mind.

The crux of the texture seemed to come from the mixing and handling, though. It was overmixed until really sticky, way past the nice glossy stage that we'd traditionally say it would be ready in the UK. Then we spread the dough out about 1" high on the table to prove, dusted in flour and covered.

After it had risen, we cut it into squares and put it on trays, all as gently as possible to preserve the irregular texture, and allowed it to recover any lift lost due to handling. Baked in a cool (200C) oven without steam.

One of my favourite breads, especially mixed with chopped olives.