Pane rustico

The Italian in the Kitchen kids arrived to a house already filled with the warm aroma of something good baking in the oven. The ingredients were out on the counter – and the kids guessed that I had already put one batch of bread in the oven to bake.

As they gathered around the island in anticipation, I pulled the large Dutch oven from my wall oven: repeating to the kids the warning “caldo, molto caldo, non toccate! non toccate!” The Dutch oven revealed a beautifully browned and crusty rustic bread, baked to perfection.

Lifting the bread from the piping hot pan, we placed it on a rack to cool and began the process of putting the ingredients together for another loaf – this time made by the children.

The recipe is for a “no knead bread” that is perfect every time and never fails to please.  It is so easy to put together and the waiting time is just four hours! Quattro ore! Believe me: it is worth every minuto!

We munched on our warm bread dipped in an extra virgin olive oil I recently found and purchased at the Italian owned restaurant: La Pizzeria in Mount Pleasant – the owner a dynamic and ebullient Laura, imports the extra virgin gem from her family’s estate in her homeland of Abruzzo in Eastern Italy on the Adriatic Sea. If you haven’t been to La Pizzeria, this is definitely a must for truly authentic, wholesome Italian food made with the finest ingredients available and Laura does not settle– what is not available here, she imports from Italy – only the best at La Pizzeria!

 

 

 

To make the bread:

ingredienti:

• 3 cups flour ( I use a mixture of 2 cups white and 1 cup whole wheat, sometimes I grind up 1/2 cup of oatmeal and substitute for 1/2 cup of the white)
• 1 packet active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/2 cups water

1. Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the water and stir with a large fork until you have a lumpy wet dough.
2. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place in a warm corner in your kitchen.
3. Leave and let rise for 4 hours.
4. After 4 hours, turn your oven on to 450. Place Dutch oven in oven to heat up.
5. Turn your dough out on to a floured work surface and fold over once.
6. Cover the dough with the bowl (inverted) and place kitchen towel over bowl.
7. After 1/2 hour take the Dutch oven from the oven and close the door to the oven quickly. The Dutch oven will be very hot – so use caution. Remove the lid (molto caldo) and sprinkle some flour on bottom of the pan. Using floured hands place the dough in the Dutch oven. (it will be a messy looking blob – but don’t worry – that’s the way it is supposed to look.) Cover and return to oven. (Work quickly so that your Dutch oven does not cool.)
8. Set timer for 1/2 hour.
9. After 1/2 hour, remove lid from Dutch oven. Turn heat up to 475 and let bread brown for 10 minutes.
10. Remove Dutch oven from oven and set on heat safe surface. Remove bread immediately from pan and place on rack to cool.

Once your bread has cooled a bit, slice and enjoy with butter or extra virgin olive oil. Either way it’s delicious! Il pane e’ delizioso!

An Italian Bread for Easter Morning

Tags

cooking with children, Easter bread, Italian Bread, traditions and holidays

My mother always made Easter Bread for Easter morning as did her mother and grandmother before her. Sadly, this is our first Easter without my mother. Every year I would love to call her for her recipe and she would tell me the stories of her grandmother making the Easter Breads. Great grandma Forte would make individual breads for each of her many grandchildren – there were always nests for the boys and baskets for the girls. Making the Easter Breads is bitter sweet this year. I miss the phone calls, the lengthy discussions about which recipe works best and I miss how proud my mom was to share her recipes and her memories with me. I’m so grateful now that I have these precious memories and the wonderful recipes to pass on to my own children and to my Italian in the Kitchen students.

The dough is ready. Isn’t it pretty!

In our Italian in the Cooking Class we made our little breads and fashioned them into nests – the way my great grandmother did.  Each child made an Easter bread to bring home and show their parents. Only trouble was that the children started eating their breads right there in class as we were finishing up the lesson! I turned my back for a second and the kids were biting right into their nests! They even ate the hard baked eggs – intrigued by the fact that the eggs were baked right in the breads and not boiled – and they were so deliziosi and very bellissimi!

The children love the hands on approach to learning – there is no other way to learn to cook and it’s a great for learning a language.

Here is the recipe for you to make and hopefully pass on to your loved onesrecipe makes 6 small breads or two large breads.

Ingredienti:

• 1 package yeast, about 2-1/4 teaspoons
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 1/2  cups flour plus more if needed
• 1 tablespoon anise seed (crushed)
• 1 cup chopped blanched almonds
• 1/2  cup apricots (chopped)
• 1/2 cup golden raisins

for egg wash

• 1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon of water

for decorating breads

• 6 dyed Easter eggs for small breads and 8 eggs for large breads (no need to boil the eggs they will bake in breads in oven)

We reviewed our favorite colors as we colored our Easter eggs: rosa, verde, viola, giallo, azzuro e arancione.

Preparazione

1. Put the milk and the butter in a small saucepan and warm just until butter melts.
2. Combine yeast, salt, eggs and sugar in a large bowl.  Add the warm milk and butter.
3. Add about half the flour and beat until smooth with dough hook.  Slowly add the remaining flour to form a stiff dough.
4. Keep adding flour one tablespoon at a time until you have a nice dough that is not at all sticky.
5. Add anise seeds nuts and dried fruit, if desired.
6. Knead until smooth with either dough hook attachment or turn out on floured board and knead for 5 minutes or until dough is smooth.
7. Place in an oiled bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm corner on the kitchen counter until doubled, about an hour.
8. Place dough on floured work surface. Punch dough down and divide into 12 pieces. (for 2 large breads divide into 4 pieces)
9. Roll each piece to form a 1 inch thick rope about 14 inches long. Twist two ropes together to form a “braid”, pinching the ends as you form a circle, creating your nest.
10. Place the six nests on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Cover with a clean dish cloth and let rise until doubled, about an hour..
11. Brush each  bread with egg wash. Place one colored egg in the middle of each  nest. (for the larger breads place four eggs directly into bread, nestling them in spaces between twisted ropes)
12. Bake at 350 degrees until golden – about 20 minutes.  Cool on rack.

The braided dough needs to rise again.

Painting the bread with egg wash.

While breads are baking make the icing.

• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 3 tablespoons  heavy cream (warmed)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Beat ingredients together with a whisk. You want the icing to drizzle on the breads, so add more cream if needed to obtain drizzability! Drizzle icing on cooled breads, add pastel colored sprinkles if desired.

This bread is wonderful Easter morning served warm with butter.

The breads are ready for the oven. Some very satisfied smiles.

Nothing smells as good as fresh baked bread!

Nothing tastes quite like fresh baked bread, either!

Expressions using  Buon and buona

Buona Pasqua! Happy Easter!

Buon giorno! Good day! or hello!

Buona sera! Good evening!

Buona notte! Good night!

Buon viaggio! Have a good trip!

Buon appetito! Enjoy your meal!

Buon lavoro! Buono studio! These “bambini” don’t seem to mind studying…

“Una bambina” shows us what she has learned!

One last pose with our breads before we devour them! Buona Pasqua a tutti!