Easy Italian Recipes

This is a good crusty loaf and quicker to make than the Rustic White Bread. It is speeded up by the addition of beer yeast and can be made with either a biga or a madre. This recipe has two risings, giving a lighter loaf. It could be made with just one like the Quick White Bread, resulting in a denser loaf but still with a good crumb, but the biga gives a much better flavour and crust, For bigger holes in the dough and a more even, lighter result, let the dough rise three times before baking.

Makes 1 big white loaf
200g biga (1/2 quantity of "starter dough" recipe)
450g strong white flour 300ml tepid water
20g fresh yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Follow the instructions for preparing the Quick White Bread until you have a loose ball of dough. Add the biga and knead on a lightly floured work surface for 10 minutes, until smooth. Try to use additional flour sparingly. For a lighter loaf, leave the dough to rise in an oiled bowl, covered in a little oil and then with clingfilm or a tea-towel. This should take about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7. Shape the loaf or loaves and leave on a large oiled baking tray. to prove for 30-40 minutes, until light and puffy- looking and doubled in size. When ready, put the tray in the oven, spraying around the loaf with water. Quickly close the door, trapping the steam inside. Bake the bread for 15 minutes and then lower the temperature to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and bake for a further 10-15 minutes, or until cooked through.

Bread with olives is made in various forms in Italy. In Milan I bought short sticks flavoured with olives and others with walnuts but there is no reason not to mix the two. Or to swap the olives for raisins; we served a raisin and walnut bread with cheese at our restaurant in Bray.

Makes 2 leaves or 6 sesame seed rolls
1 quantity of Quick White Bread dough
150g olives, roughly chopped and dried on kitchen paper
50g walnuts

Follow the instructions for preparing the Quick White Bread, leave the dough to double in size and then put it on a floured work surface, spreading it out into an oval about 3cm thick. Lay over the olives and/or walnuts. Fold the dough over from either side into the centre. Now pull the dough from the top and bottom edges into the centre and push down on the seam, creating a backbone. Give the dough a quarter turn and repeat the folding 15-20 times, until the olives and nuts are all incorporated. (Some will fall out; pop them back in the centre and keep folding and turning until amalgamated.)
Form the shape into two rounds and slash a cross in the top. Leave on a large oiled baking tray until
doubled in size, 1-11/2 hours. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.

Variation: Sesame Seed Rolls
Split the risen dough into six portions. Fold the sides of each piece in, then pull the top and bottom edges into the centre and push down on the seam to create a backbone. Give the dough a quarter turn and repeat the folding five times. Roll each piece gently to give a longer shape, seam downwards. Wipe over a little egg white and pat on some sesame seeds. Slash the tops and leave to rise until doubled in size. Bake as above.

 Makes 10 spiral rolls

1 quantity of Quick White Bread dough
100g cooked spinach, thoroughly squeezed dry 200g ricotta
25g Parmesan, finely grated
grated nutmeg, to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Follow the instructions for the Quick White Bread until the dough is shaped. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6 and oil a large baking tray.

Make the stuffing by combining the ingredients in a bowl, seasoning to taste. Roll the dough into a rectangle lcm thick. Spread the spinach mixture over the dough and roll it up into a log shape. Cut into ten.

Transfer the rolls to the tray, making sure they have enough space around them to increase in size. Set aside in a warm place, covered with a tea-towel, until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden and cooked through.

Rustic White Bread with Madre

This big rustic white loaf, often referred to as the pagnotta, or 'loaf', is found in various guises across Italy. It takes a while to prepare since the dough is left to rise, and is reshaped and moulded four times over 24 hours. Start it in the evening and leave the dough to rise overnight. The dough relies solely on the natural ferment in the madre. It should be full of holes, have a wonderful acidity and a chewy, crispy crust. After making this loaf you will appreciate the difference between artisan loaves and industrially made white bread.

Makes 1 large loaf

350g madre
500g strong white flour
3 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons honey
300ml tepid water

Mix the flour and the salt in a bowl. Add the honey to the water and blend with a small whisk or your hands. Pour into the flour and add the madre. Using your hands or a plastic dough scraper, bring the ingredients together until you have a loose ball of dough. Transfer to a lightly floured work surface and knead for 10 minutes, until smooth. Try to use additional flour sparingly. Put the dough in a floured bowl and cover with a tea-towel. Let it rise for an hour.
Re-knead the dough and form it into a ball; leave to rest for another hour. Repeat this process once more. Put the dough in a basket lined with a loose-weave linen tea-towel sprinkled with flour. Cover with a cloth and leave in a cool place or the fridge to rise for 14-15 hours. It is ready when doubled in size and it springs back slowly to the touch.
In the last hour, preheat the oven to 240°C/475°F/gas mark 9. Put in a baking tray upside down. When the dough is ready, gently turn it out onto a pala or baking tray sprinkled with semolina. Spray the oven with water. Slash the top of the dough with a cross and slide it onto the hot inverted tray. Spray the oven with water and quickly close the door to trap the steam inside. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7 and bake for 25-30 minutes. If it begins to burn after 25 minutes and is not cooked through, turn the oven down to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. The loaf is ready when light to the touch and hollow-sounding if tapped on the base.

Quick White Bread

This is a quick white dough without a biga or madre. It can be used as a basic dough for the Spinach and Ricotta Rolls, the Roasted Vegetable Rolls and the Walnut and Olive Breads. One of our chefs, Chef, used to make a large batch of this dough and leave it in the fridge overnight to rise. He would then turn it into seeded rolls, focaccia, pizza for the staff lunch and grissini. By leaving it to rise slowly, he ensured the dough developed its flavour through slow fermentation rather than adding a starter. The simplicity of this recipe is that it has one rising after being kneaded and shaped. This gives a close-grained loaf, If you have time and prefer a more open grain, leave to rise in a bowl for an hour or two or overnight like Chef, then shape and allow to prove again.

2 teaspoons salt
500g strong white flour lOg fresh yeast
350ml tepid water

Mix the salt into the flour on a board and make a well in the centre. Blend the yeast into the water with a small whisk or your hands, then pour it into the well in the mound of flour. Bring the dough together with your fingers or a dough scraper and collect it into a ball.

Try to use additional flour sparingly; a good dough should be as wet as possible without being impossible to handle. Establish a pattern of pushing the dough out into a long oval, then fold it back towards you, trapping air inside. Next give a quarter turn and push it out again. Keep thinking: stretch it, fold it, turn it; stretch it, fold it, turn it. 

The dough is ready when it is springs back to the touch, feels elastic and stops sticking to the board. If the amount you are making is big, split the dough into 2 to make it easier to knead.
Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7. Shape the dough as required and place it on a flat piece of wood or baking tray dusted with flour or semolina. This helps it slide into the oven when risen. Leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, 45-60 minutes. When ready, the dough should slowly bounce back to the touch. Make a cross in the top of the dough, then put in the oven on an oiled baking tray. Bake the loaves for 30-35 minutes, the rolls for about 20 minutes.

Ciabatta, which literally translates as 'slipper bread', is originally from Como. This recipe is based on one I learnt from Thane Prince, who really gave me the confidence to make ciabatta. She claimed it was one of the easiest breads to make. I didn't believe her until I tried her method - she explained that ciabatta doesn't need kneading, which is just as well as the dough has to be very wet. Thane uses a mother for her ciabatta, which gives the necessary acidity of flavour to the loaf. I have adapted her recipe to use my biga or madre starter, The biga recipe makes 400g, so either use half for something else, freeze it or only make half the biga recipe to start your ciabatta.

Makes 4 large Ciabatta

200g biga or madre
500g strong white flour
2 teaspoons fine salt
10g fresh yeast
400ml tepid water
5 tablespoons olive oil

Put the flour and salt in a bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the water and add 3 tablespoons of the oil. Pour into the bowl and mix roughly, then add the biga or madre. This is a wet dough, so use a mixer, mix by hand with a plastic dough scraper until amalgamated, or follow the method for Crispy Pugliese Focaccia.

Pour the dough into an oiled bowl and drizzle 1 tablespoon of the remaining oil over the surface of the bread. Use the scraper to scrape down the sides of the bowl, tucking the dough in as you go until all the dough is covered in oil. Try to get the oil beneath the dough so it does not stick to the bowl. This helps the dough to rise and pour easily when you are ready to shape it. Leave to rise until doubled in size, about 11/2 hours (or an hour an a warm kitchen). The dough doesn't need to be covered because the surface is coated with oil. For slower fermentation and extra acidity of flavour, leave to rise in the fridge overnight. Bring the dough to room temperature before the next stage.

Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7 and put in two baking trays upside down. Heavily flour the work surface and two palas or flat baking trays. Pour the ciabatta mixture onto the work surface, using the dough scraper to cut it free. Form it into a rough rectangle using the scraper. Scatter flour over the top and cut into 4 lengths. Pick up each length of dough from either end with your hands and transfer to the palas or baking trays, pulling it out to lengthen it. The less you fiddle with the loaves now the better to keep the air bubbles inside. Sprinkle a little flour over and leave to prove for 11/2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Slide the loaves from the palas or trays onto the hot inverted baking trays and spray the oven with water. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden and the bases sound hollow when tapped. Or bake for 15 minutes, cool, freeze and bake for 15-20 minutes from frozen.

Starters

Using a fermentation 'starter' helps to develop flavour and create a more open texture and chewy crust. This is the flavour that hits you when you break into a wonderful artisan loaf and release the slightly beery, acidic smell inside. The longer the starter is given to ferment, the more pronounced these qualities. There are three types of starter: the everlasting starter (or madre) made from natural yeast, the starter dough (or biga) made from beer yeast a day or two before the dough is made and used in its entirity, and the mother dough which is literally a piece of dough kept back from the previous day's baking and aded to the next batch. All these starters, to a greater or lesser degree, give the bread qualities that cannot be found in a loaf made without a starter. Of the three, the madre produces the highest acidity, the most flavour and a good crust.
Traditional Italian wheat flour is weak in gluten and so using a starter of any kind helps to form a good, well risen loaf. Today, imported Canadian flours are far stronger than they were in the past, making a starter less necessary to ensure bread made with this type of flour rises, but a starter is still good for flavour. Some of the Italians I have worked with tell me that now beer yeast and good flour are readily available, they no longer use a starter as their mothers did 20 or 30 years ago. Some Italian bakers use a poolish, the starter used by French bakers. This is more liquid than a biga, usually containing the same amount of water to flour, and its name derives from the Polish bakers whose techniques were taken to France. However, it is not nearly as popular as the firmer, more traditional biga.

Everlasting starter (madre)

This is sometimes referred to in English as a 'mother' or 'sourdough' starter and in Italian as lievito di madre, madriga or pasta acida. Before beer yeast was readily available, each household would make its own starter from airborne yeasts or those found in fermenting fruits such as grapes. It's easy enough to create your own yeast culture from flour, water and honey over about a week. This can then be kept in the fridge, 'fed' regularly with flour and water, and used to give bread a wonderful flavour, crust and texture. Such starters are everlasting: some bakeries in America claim to have had their starter for over one hundred years. It can be made out of white or wholemeal flour. I have used both successfully, but if you want a pure white bread you cannot use a wholemeal starter; bear in mind, though, that a wholemeal starter works more quickly. It is better to choose the type of flour according to the bread you are most likely to make - if you are a lover of wholemeal, stick to a wholemeal starter.

- 200g organic strong white flour or organic strong wholemeal flour, or a mixture of the two
- 150m1 tepid water
- 1 teaspoon organic mild honey, such as acacia

Mix all the ingredients together well and leave in a plastic container in a warm place with the lid slightly ajar. In a day or two the contents will start to ferment and bubble, and a strong smell of alcohol will develop. I was convinced this was wrong the first time I made this madre and threw it away! Perservere; the flavour will moderate over time and with regular feeding, and the resulting flavour of your bread will be delicious. After two days, discard 100g of the fermented mixture and 'feed' it with another 200g of the same type of flour and 150m1 water. Mix them in well, including any crust that has developed. This can be done by blitzing in a food-processor. Repeat every now and again to ensure that the madre has a smooth consistency. Leave the mixture again, lid on this time, in a warm place for another 48 hours and then discard another 100g and feed as before. Leave for one more day, then the madre is ready to use according to the instructons in the recipe. From now on keep the madre in the fridge with the lid on. All you need to remember is to use (or discard) 350g a week and then to feed it with flour and water as before. Don't worry too much about the timing, though; at the low temperature of your fridge, the madre will forgive you if you leave it for up to ten days without nourishment. If you have too much because of lack of use and subsequent feedings, throw away a little more of the madre each time to compensate'. If I want to use the madre the day after feeding it, I leave it out-of the fridge to speed up the fermentation. Similarly, if I know I won't be using it for another few days, I immediately put it back in the fridge to slow down the fermentation.

If I do not have an everlasting starter in my fridge, I make a biga a couple of days before or even the night before I want to make bread. This type of starter dough can also be frozen. Just remember that it needs to defrost for 3 hours at room temperature to return to its bubbly and active old self. I find I can make most Italian bread successfully in this way.
A biga usually consists of half the amount of water to flour and a very small percentage of beer yeast (lievito di birra). As with other starters, there are several ways of preparing a biga, and each recipe can differ according to the type of bread being made. I have worked out a simple method here that can be added to a variety of recipes. Either mix it with the water first or
knead into the rest of the ingredients when they form a dough - whichever -
you find easier. For best results when using a biga, be patient and give the dough a few hours to rise to let the flavour really emerge. As a general rule, the slower the fermentation, the better the flavour of the bread.

Writing a chapter about Italian bread is like negotiating a maze: it is full of traps, contradictory information and differing opinions. Bread is made differently all over Italy, and those differences are not simply regional: bread-making varies from town to town, street to street and home to home. What I want to convey here, then, is the spirit of Italian bread and the ease of making classics- such as focaccia and pizza, which are still made in most households today. As you grow in experience, I hope you'll be encouraged to try making breads using a madre, such as the Rustic White Bread, or with a biga, such as the Spelt Bread or Rye Bread. First, though, a little explanation about how the rising is achieved.