Home » Travel » Italy » Tuscan Bread - Simple, Saltless, and Satisfying

Tuscan Bread - Simple, Saltless, and Satisfying

© Sonia Michaels

There's a lot of simple, slow food in Italy. Sauces, simmered for hours over a low flame; risotto, stirred lovingly while the broth or wine absorbs, and pasta, mixed, rolled, and shaped by hand into a myriad of forms and flavors. But one of the purest forms of "slow food" is bread - flour, water, and yeast, blended with care, and set aside to rise, then baked to crusty perfection in a brick oven. From this bread, many of the signature dishes of Italy are made - crostini, panzanella (bread salad), and ribollita (bread soup), among others. (Recipes for these, and much more, at http://www.arca.net/recipes ) Then, there's the simple, sensual experience of a slice of fresh Tuscan bread dipped in rich, greenish-yellow olive oil - with or without herbs, olives, or garlic.

Tuscan bread is made with little or no salt, yet it is never bland - the omission of the salt is more than balanced out by the pronounced flavor of the yeast, and the finished loaf is chewy without being tough. This staple of the Tuscan diet is more substantial than French bread, and more filling - and while it doesn't have the airy lightness of a French loaf, it never seems heavy.

Now that summer is nearly here, I can start looking forward to my favorite summer lunch of fresh-picked tomatoes and basil layered on a slice from a large, round Tuscan loaf - a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper draw all these flavors together perfectly. Or perhaps I'll throw some ripe olives and herbs into the dough, then serve the loaf warm from the oven with fresh goat's or sheep's milk cheese from nearby Saltspring Island (http://www.ssdairy.com/~ssdairy/cheese2.... ).

Here's the basic recipe I use - from one of my favorite Italian cookbooks, Giuliano Bugialli's Foods of Tuscany. It takes a while to put this bread together, but the finished product is certainly worth the wait. I got my unglazed terra-cotta tiles from a local tile warehouse - they were easy to find and inexpensive, and they really make a difference to the quality and texture of the bread I bake. There's another recipe at http://www.arca.net/recipes - under the heading "Perfect Daily Bread" - it looks similar, though I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Also take a look at "The Artisan" - http://www.arca.net/recipes/ - for some excellent information on Italian food - especially bread!

The copyright of the article Tuscan Bread - Simple, Saltless, and Satisfying in Italy is owned by . Permission to republish Tuscan Bread - Simple, Saltless, and Satisfying in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.