Artisan Breads Every Day
I started baking bread about 10 years ago using Carol Field’s The Italian Baker as my reference. That is where I learned about using a starter or biga to improve the flavor of my bread. The next important book in my bread baking education was The Bread Baker’s Apprentice
Bread baking can be a time consuming task. Mixing, rising, shaping, and baking bread can take hours depending on the type of bread. In recent years an answer to this problem for home bakers has appeared in the person of no-knead bread recipes, like the techniques in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. These recipes cut down on the active time required to bake bread, the principle being that you make a large batch of very wet dough with minimal kneading, place it in the refrigerator to ferment, take the dough out the day you want to bake, shape, proof for forty minutes or so and bake. While the results can be very good, especially considering the amount of time and effort put in, I find the breads are not quite as good as the ones I make when I use Reinhart and Field’s formulas.
In his latest book, Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day
The book starts off with some science, talking about streamlining the baking process by replacing pre-ferments with overnight fermentation. After that the author talks about tools and ingredients then goes into some of the basic techniques that are used throughout the book such as the stretch and fold technique.
The recipes follow, starting with classic French bread, then moving to a Pain a l’Ancienne Rustic dough than can be used to make ciabatta and focaccia. I have tried many ciabatta recipes at home with varying levels of success and this is definitely my new go to recipe, my results have been consistently awesome every time. A nice open crumb, slightly sour flavor and crisp crust. There are also several pizza dough recipes, including a great Neo-Neopolitan Pizza dough that is so easy to make, you will never need to buy pre-made dough again.
The recipes I have mentioned just scratch the surface. Formulas for everything from bagels to whole wheat sourdough to chocolate croissants should be able to satisfy just about every baker’s tastes. Peter Reinhart has done it again giving us yet another indispensible resource for making excellent breads at home.
Recipe:
Neo-Neopolitan Pizza Dough
Seafood alla Siciliana
In the cookbook Seafood alla Siciliana: Recipes and Stories from a Living Tradition
Lydecker gives us well written and easy to follow recipes for classic Sicilian dishes such as Pasta con le Sarde, Involltini di Pesce Spada (she gives us two variations of these typically Sicilian stuffed swordfish rolls, including a wonderful pistachio-crusted one with an escarole filling), and Tuna with Sweet-Sour Onions alongside more modern riffs on Sicilian flavors such as Aromatic Salmon Steamed in Foil and Braised Grouper Over Sweet Pea Puree. Interspersed throughout the book are great stories about the people and traditions she encountered as she explored Sicily, including a nice section on some of the more memorable meals she enjoyed while putting together the book.
One thing I was not expecting to get out of a book on Sicilian Seafood was great sandwich ideas, but the chapter on Savory Pies and Panini surprsed me with recipes like Pizza-Panino with Anchovies and Fresh Tomatoes and Sardine Sandwiches with Grilled Eggplant. That chapter and a one page listing of Antipasti, Presto or quick appetizers such as tuna crostini and roasted red peppers rolled up with anchovies are just two of the extra little touches that help make this one of my favorite cookbooks of the year.
Recipes:
Aromatic Salmon Steamed In Foil
Seared Tuna With Sweet-Sour Onions
Cookbook Recipe: Urban Italian
In addition to our own original recipes, we like to feature recipes from some of our favorite cookbooks on The Italian Chef from time to time. Urban Italian: Simple Recipes and True Stories from a Life in Food
Recipe:
Puglia: A Culinary Memoir
The first book in the new Italy’s Food Culture series of cookbooks, translated from the original Italian, by Oronzo Editions, Puglia: A Culinary Memoir
The cooking of Puglia started out as “cucina povera”, or peasant cooking, but has evolved into a substantial cuisine that still retains the character of the region. Referred to as “Italy’s California”, the land in Puglia is bountiful, and the cooking is rooted in the crops that are grown locally. In keeping with that, there is a big emphasis in this book on vegetable dishes. If you are an eggplant fan there is a treasure trove of great eggplant recipes, such as Baked Eggplant with Olives, Eggplant “Meatballs”, Eggplant Mushroom-Style, and one of the recipes we are featuring, Eggplant Rollups.
While vegetables are the star here, they are not the only reason to read this book. There are some great pasta dishes, especially for the typical pasta of the region, Orecchiette, including Oricchiette with Brocoli Rabe. Due to the prevalence of olive oil in the region, there is a large variety of fried foods in Puglia, which gives us an amazing chapter on Fritters and Turnovers.
The book is rounded out with chapters on chicken, pork and lamb as well as fish and shellfish, all interspersed with informative entries on subjects like the farmhouse, olive trees and Christmas traditions. As with most cookbooks originally written in Italian, the recipes assume some mastery of cooking in general and are not as detailed or explicit as American audiences usually expect, but in the translation Oronzo has beefed up the cooking instructions and clarified ingredient amounts.
The Italy’s Food Culture series has gotten off to a great start, featuring two underappreciated regions of Italy, Puglia and Sicily. I am looking forward to the future volumes planned and seeing how they handle some of the more familiar cuisines like Florence, Venice and Reggio Emilia.
Recipes:
Sicily: Culinary Crossroads
Italy’s Food Culture is a series of regional Italian cookbooks, translated into English, from publisher Oronzo Editions. Two volumes have been released so far, Puglia: A Culinary Memoir and Sicily: Culinary Crossroads
The introduction gives an overview on how the history of Sicily and all of the different cultures that have occupied it over the years have contributed to molding the cuisine. The book is then broken down by region representing the provinces of Messina, Catania, Siracusa and Ragusa. All 4 of these cities are actually on the east coast of Sicily, so the original Italian title of the book, La Cucina della Sicilia Orientale (The Cooking of Eastern Sicily) might be considered more accurate. But, this is a minor quibble, because Coria’s history covers the whole island and the recipes capture the spirit of Sicilian cooking in general.
Each section starts off with a brief overview of the region it covers, then the recipes are organized by category, first courses, meat dishes, fish dishes, etc. Even the typical cheeses produced in each province are discussed. The two recipes I am reprinting here, Pasta a la Norma and Mussel Soup are from Catania and Messina, respectively. There are many other excellent recipes from all 4 regions in this book, including a Holiday Ragu from Ragusa and Fish Soup Siracusa-Style. It is also a very nice looking book with great pictures of Sicily and it’s ingredients.
My parents are from Francavilla di Sicilia which is right between, Catania and Messina. I showed this book to them for a quick authenticity check. My mother went straight to the Pasta al a Norma Recipe, read it and exclaimed, “They got it right!” My father after reading it had one question, “Can I have it?” Two pretty strong seals of approval. Sicily: Culinary Crossroads is a must for anybody interested in the gastronomy of Sicily.
Recipes:
Master Recipe: Artisan Bread in Five
I recently blogged about my experiences with the no knead bread recipes from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. This prompted several requests for the recipe from readers. Zoe Francois has kindly given me permission to reprint the master recipe from the book:
The Master Recipe: Boule (Artisan Free-Form Loaf)
Also, please take time to visit the authors’ websites:
ArtisanBreadInFive.com – For answers to questions on the techniques/recipes.
Zoe Bakes – Features baking recipes and great pictures.
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
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Last week my cousin Sal asked me to recommend a good Italian cookbook that he could give as a birthday gift to a friend. My first reaction was to choose from the books I have featured on this site. There are some excellent ones like The Silver Spoon and Italian Family Dining. But, as I thought about it more I realized the one Italian cookbook that I would want if I could only have one was conspicuously missing, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
Published in 1992, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking is actually two earlier works of Hazan’s from the 1970s combined into one volume and updated. Essentials literally is an essential resource for anybody cooking Italian food at home, whether a beginner or expert. Hazan includes clear recipes for many great Italian dishes as well as tremendous detail on techniques for doing everything from rolling handmade pasta to cutting and pounding veal scallopine. I find myself referring to this classic time and again.
When I got home after touting the book to Sal, I took it out to leaf through and was inspired to try a recipe I hadn’t tried before, Baked Crespelle with Bolognese Meat Sauce. After making these crepes stuffed with Bolognese Sauce and Béchamel, there was no doubt I made the right recommendation.
