Easy Italian Bread

Okay, so the title is still "sort-of" of an alliteration, but I'm working on it. At least all the words in the title don't start with the same letter, right?

Right. Now on to better and more delicious things. To start with, my mom's famous spaghetti with clam sauce!

Alright, maybe it's not famous (to you anyway); but it's definitely yummy. And what goes well with yummy pasta?

Yep, you guessed it - Italian bread.

Now you see, my mom comes from a very Italian family. If you also come from an Italian background, you know what I'm talking about. The red stuff that coats your favorite pasta is called gravy, not sauce and so on. Even her maiden name sounds like it could be one of the types of Buitoni pastas - Orsini (seriously, doesn't that sound like it would look like orzo or Acini Pepe?).

So naturally, we like pasta in my house - a lot, and bread - lots of bread. So how could we have spaghetti with clams without any bread?!

Never fear I thought - I will make the bread! In reality though, there was considerable fear. Mostly my own fear of not meeting my family's (and my own) great expectations when it comes to good Italian Bread.

But - I happened to have stumbled upon a rather intriguing FoodGawker post that claims it's a "no fuss" recipe for bread. No fuss? No overnight starter? This I have to see.

The recipe comes from ShareMyKitchen, and it looks just like the Italian Bread my mom would pick up from Calandra's Bakery in Newark. So now a little bit of the initial fear has subsided, and I'm thinking "I can do this!" I hope. Otherwise, there's no bread in the house to have with dinner....so maybe I am still a little concerned. Just a little.

But with only 5 ingredients - how hard could it be? I opted to make one larger loaf than split it into three smaller ones like the recipe suggested. Other than that I followed it to a T.

Pretty simple, longest step was just letting it rise for an hour but....

Ta - Da! Italian Bread in less than a few hours!

And may I say (I feel like I always do actually) that this is a STELLAR recipe?! Super easy, even for the most amateur (like me) bread bakers. If you are planning to have family or friends over for a pasta night, I would strongly suggest planning ahead just a bit so that you have enough time to make this. You can even have it still in the oven when they arrive, and casually remark "oh let me go get the bread out of the oven" and do a total shock and awe when they see you pull a Rustic, Artisan-esque bread from your oven.

There you have it, a super-cool (and simple!) way to impress your friends, and save you some cash. This is definitely more cost-effective than buying one of those loaves from the supermarket (and it tastes better too).

I hope you are inspired to have an Italian pasta night just to have a reason to bake up some bread! I know it definitely made a great addition to Mom's Spaghetti and Clams. Enjoy!

Quick Crusty Bread Via ShareMyKitchen
makes 3 smaller loaves or 1 large loaf

500 g all-purpose flour
370 ml lukewarm water
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1. Sift together the flour and salt. Add the yeast.
2. In a separate bowl, dissolve the honey in the warm water.
3 Make a well in the flour and pour in the warm honey-water. Stir until you get a sticky dough (trust me, it won't look pretty, but that's fine. It looks pretty when it's done)
4. Sprinkle a little flour over the top and cover the bowl with a towel or foil. Let rise for about an hour in a warm, dark place. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 430 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle a little flour over it.
5. Carefully remove dough from bowl and place onto baking sheet (floured side up). Shape slightly into a loaf and place in oven.
6. Bake at 430 F for 15-20 minutes, then lower the heat to 320 F and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack before slicing.

Fumbling Around with Focaccia

Well, it's about time to take a turn towards savory baking. I had been dying to try out a focaccia recipe and my mom needed bread to go with dinner (penne with clam sauce!), and would you believe it's so much easier than I thought! Some students in my Foods Lab last semester made some using a basic recipe, which I tweaked quite a bit for this post.

So basic ingredients are: active dry yeast, flour (all purpose is fine but I happened to have bread flour handy), sugar, water, olive oil, and salt. Other than that, you can pretty much customize your toppings. I went with a basil, oregano and sea salt combo.

Here's how the dough looks once it doubles after 30 minutes of rising in a warm, dark place (aka my pantry). It's so awesome to see it expand like that in such a short time; although now my pantry does smell a whole lot like bread. Not that I mind. :)

I'll add the whole recipe at the end of the post, but I decided not to go completely step by step with photos since this recipe is really quite simple. I am not a bread baker, and this was my first time using yeast. But the good news is that this is a pretty forgiving recipe since formation of gluten is actually a good thing (not like in cakes). So knead away my friends!

Now the original recipe wanted me to mix the toppings with the olive oil, but I was worried that would clump and I wanted to make sure there was an even distribution of spices. So instead I brushed the entire top of the dough with olive oil and then sprinkled the seasonings over. At this point, it's time to pop it in the oven! Did I mention this recipe will fill your entire kitchen with the amazing smell of Italian spices and bread? Because it does, and it's downright awesome.

And there you have it! Fantastic Focaccia from your own oven. I have to say, now that I know I can do this, I plan on making this a lot more often, with dozens of different toppings (sundried tomatoes and mozzarella anyone?)

Focaccia

for the dough:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar

for the topping:
olive oil (enough to coat the top of the dough)
oregano and basil (roughly 1-2 tbsp)
(feel free to add as much or as little toppings as is preferable to you; I just sprinkled both spices over the dough until I felt it was enough)


1. Mix 3/4 cup of flour with salt and olive oil
2. In a separate bowl, add 1 tbsp + 2 tsp of warm water to yeast and sugar. Mix thoroughly and let stand for roughly 10 minutes, or until frothy/foamy
3. In a large bowl, mix together flour mixture and yeast mixture with 1/2 cup of warm water
4. Knead the dough and add the remaining flour as needed to lessen the stickiness of the dough. If it becomes too dry, just add a little more warm water
5. Cover the bowl with a cloth and set in a warm, dark place to rise for 30 minutes
6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
7. Remove cloth and knead dough. Divide into two portions and roll (or stretch) out to 1/4 inch thickness, making either a round or oval shape. Place each on a cookie sheet and let rise in a dark place for an additional 10 minutes
8. Slash or poke the dough with your fingers (make sure to make indents over the entire dough)
9. Brush dough with olive oil and sprinkle toppings
10. Bake at 400 degrees for roughly 13-15 minutes, then turn the broiler on high and let cook for an addtional 1-2 minutes (watch carefully so it does not burn).
11. Let cool, cut into strips and serve!