Easy Italian Recipes

Yeast is a single-celled fungus that eats carbohydrate as it multiplies. As it does so, it produces carbon dioxide gas in the form of little bubbles, which are perfect for making bread. A few cells of yeast are all you need, but the amount of yeast required to make dough rise varies hugely in accordance with the result you are seeking. I would use as little as 3g yeast to 500g flour in some recipes to produce a very slow fermentation that gives an acidic flavour to the finished loaf. But I have also listed recipes here with 25g yeast to 500g flour, for example a Pugliese-style focaccia.

In this recipe, the bubbles rise quickly to the surface and the bread is light, airy and quick to make. As a general rule, the less yeast you use, the longer the fermentation and therefore the better the flavour.

Natural yeast
Natural airborne yeasts are all around us and can be harvested simply by leaving food out for them. This is what must have first happened a few thousand years ago when someone accidentally left the dough out and it started to ferment from the natural yeast in the air. When it was baked, or mixed first with fresh dough, this leavened bread would have tasted really rather nice! Since then, people have been making their own starter doughs (often called a Thother'), from natural yeast found in the air or from fermenting substances like fruit, including grapes (or grape must), apples and oranges. This was how all bread was leavened before beer yeast was marketed in fresh or dried form. If you want to make your own starter in this way, follow the instructions for making your own madre (mother)

Fresh yeast
Though you can achieve equally good results with fresh or dried commerial yeast, I prefer to use fresh yeast. It feels more natural and is generally preferred in Italy, where you can buy it in shops and supermarkets. Here, it is a little harder to find, but you can usually buy it from health food stores, organic shops or the bakeries in some supermarkets. Fresh yeast keeps in the fridge for up to three weeks if it is covered, and you can rub it straight into the flour when you start making your bread, however I prefer to melt it in tepid water first to prevent any lumps of yeast appearing in my dough.
If you buy a large block of fresh yeast, cut it into small portions, wrap them in clingfilm and store in the freezer for up to three months. You should defrost them before use... that said, on occasion I have had to use yeast from frozen and as soon as it hits the tepid water it quickly melts.

Dried yeast
The advantage of dried yeast is that you can keep it in a cupboard and bring it out as necessary rather than worrying about using up the fresh yeast stored in the fridge within its three-week shelf life. Just make sure you observe the use-by date as even dried yeast eventually perishes. Use half the quantity of dried yeast to fresh.
Old-fashioned dried yeasts had to be brought back to life with warm water and a touch of sugar, but today's fast-action or easy-blend yeasts can simply be mixed straight in with the flour.