The Tuscany bread

The famous bread of AltopascioThe main characteristic of Toscana's bread is that it's completely lacking in salt. It matches very well the tasty and piquant dishes of the region. Moreover when bread was cooked in ovens, the not too much high temperature, allowed it to preserve numerous nourishing properties. It is said that Dante Alighieri, pronouncing the sentence "you'll taste how salty is the other people's bread", referred to the period in which his political enemies obliged him to leave Firenze into exile.

Recipe

Ingredients: flour 00 (650 gr), tepid water (450 ml), extra-virgin olive oil, yeast (12 gr).

First day: knead 300 gr of flour 00 with 200 ml of water in which you have already dissolved 7 gr of yeast. Put the dough into a bowl, cover it with a transparent pellicle and let it leaven for 12 hours.

Second day: remove the transparent pellicle. Dissolve 5 gr of yeast in 150 ml of water. Put 250 of flour on a rolling - board. Pour the water on the flour and knead it together with the already leavened dough. Model it in an oval or round shape and put it on a baking - pan previously sprinkled with flour. Cover the bread with a cloth and let it leaven for an hour and a half. Put the baking - pan in the oven at 220°C for the first 10 min., then lower the temperature to 180°C for 40 min. and then, when bread will be crisp, put it on a grate for a more uniform cooking.

Region of production: Toscana. The most famous bread is the one made in Altopascio.

Niki

Translated by: Daniela