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Let's make this amazing traditional Italian bread. It's a no-knead dough and it only requires three simple ingredients. If you like to bake, I think you'll really enjoy this one. It has an amazing crunchy crust and a soft, pure white crumb.
This style of bread has been made for hundreds of years on the outskirts of Rome, in an area called Castellani, where most Romans come to enjoy fresh air in the summer. Most families around Rome have their own recipe for this bread, and this is mine. It's a real crowd-pleaser.
I'm going to show you two different ways to make this bread. Both are easy, but you'll see the different techniques give quite different results. This recipe comes from my cookbook, Simple Pleasures, which has many other delicious breads. You can pre-order the book right now.
Okay, let's make this easy bread. Okay, I lied, it's four ingredients. But Jamie Oliver would not consider salt an ingredient if that's how he's going to roll. I'm going to roll with him.
In a big bowl, the biggest bowl you have, combine together water, salt, and yeast. You want to use the biggest bowl you have, as this dough could potentially escape the bowl.
Now, this first method does not involve any skill whatsoever. It's perfect for beginners, and as promised, there's no kneading, no babysitting the dough. You mix the ingredients and you forget about the dough. This is the way busy working people have been making this bread for hundreds of years. If you don't work from home but you want fresh bread on the table for dinner, this might be the version for you. You make the dough in the morning before you go out to work and quickly bake it when you get home. This takes 5 minutes of your morning, and you'll see it again that evening.
I've added the flour, and you want to mix until a shaggy dough forms. I do like to finish mixing the dough with my hand. This allows me to feel the dough to make sure all the flour is incorporated. Yes, it will be sticky, and yes, it will be messy, but nothing is as good at mixing as your hands. Push down the dough with the spatula as best you can. Cover the bowl and forget it. Leave it on the countertop for a minimum of 6 hours. In this particular method, time is essential for gluten development. So, see you in 6 hours, folks, or later.
Now, let's make the second version. Same recipe, different amount of yeast, and different technique: the stretch and fold technique. This technique allows you to get a loaf with much better oven spring. It will rise much higher, and the crumb will be more aerated. Combine the water, salt, and yeast. Add the flour, and you want to mix until your dough comes together.
Now, this technique, the good old stretch and fold technique, is the technique we used for my big bubble focaccia. Essentially, what you're going to do is make the dough, cover it well, and come back every half an hour and perform a series of stretch and folds. We're going to do about four to five series in total. Take one side of the dough, lift and stretch, and fold the dough, bringing it to the opposite side of the bowl. Rotate the bowl one quarter and repeat this process. You want to do about 3 to 4 folds per session. Cover the bowl again and come back in 30 minutes and do the next series of stretch and folds.
Now, this method helps the dough start to develop gluten, so you'll be able to enjoy this bread in a couple of hours. But there's more to it. As you're doing the multiple series of stretch and folds, you're gradually creating more and more tension in the dough. This happens because we're creating a network of bubbles that are expanding due to the yeast fermentation, stretching out the gluten network and the dough, and causing it to have tension as you fold it. By creating all this tension in the dough, we're creating a dough that can support its own weight as it expands in the oven. Without all the stretching and folding, the dough will be able to hold its own weight as it expands, so it simply will not rise as much. This is why the first loaf we made won't rise as much as the second loaf. We're essentially creating structure, which the first loaf will not have.
After a couple of hours, you'll have done about four rounds of stretch and folds. We're ready to bake this loaf. Perform one last series of stretch and folds. Set the dough to the side and get your Dutch oven. Mine has been with us for many, many years, as you can see. Dutch ovens create the perfect micro-environment for the bread. Steam coming off the bread will create a humid environment that allows the bread to rise before the crust sets. After we've gotten the first rise we need, we'll remove the lid, which will allow the steam to escape and allows the crispy crust to develop.
Now, if you don't have a Dutch oven, go to my website. I've got tons of other options you can use. You're going to preheat your oven to 420°F (230°C) for about 15 minutes with your empty Dutch oven inside the oven. Then, carefully take it out of the oven. Do not burn yourself, please be careful. And you want to sprinkle the inside of your Dutch oven with flour. Drop, drop the dough into the pot. You don't have to shape it, just drop it in and make a slash in the middle with a sharp knife. I just use scissors. Bake it with the lid for about 30 to 35 minutes. Then remove the lid, drop the oven temperature to 400°F, and bake the bread for another 10 to 20 minutes, or until you have a golden crust that looks crunchy and crispy.
Now, how dark in color you take the crust is just personal taste. If you like it darker, leave it in the oven a little longer. Take the bread out of the pot and leave it to cool completely on a wire rack. If you don't have a wire rack, let the bread cool upside down. The main thing is to make sure the base of the loaf has air circulating around it.
Now, let's fast forward 6 to 8 hours later. You're going to preheat the oven again with the Dutch oven inside. Our first loaf finally needs some attention, and boy, does it need attention. It will have risen and collapsed onto itself. There's no structure to this bread. Now, a pro baker would say that this dough has gone terribly wrong and is overproofed. They'd be right, but the truth is, if you're just trying to get some delicious fresh bread on the table for dinner, it really doesn't matter at all. Why doesn't it matter? Because we can easily rescue it. All you do is quickly gather the dough together and perform one series of stretch and folds. That's it. Done. We rescued our overproof dough. Grandmas have been rescuing overproof dough for hundreds of years. You see, they're always overproofing their dough, just like they're always overcooking their vegetables. I'm joking, I'm kidding, grandma does the best cooking, but they really have been rescuing doughs this way for hundreds of years.
Drop the dough into the flour Dutch oven, and you're going to bake this bread at 420°F for 30 minutes, as we did the other one. Then remove the lid and lower the temperature to 400°F and bake for another 10 minutes. Allow this loaf, and the other one, to sit for at least 45 minutes before cutting into it.
As you can see, when we compare the two versions, the one without the multiple series of stretch and folds didn't rise as much. It is still delicious, though. The crumb will be different as well. The second version will have a tighter crumb, less bubbles. It is soft and delicious. The loaf where we used the stretch and fold technique will be taller and have a more open crumb.
Now, if you want really, really, really big bubbles, like my big bubble focaccia, use bread flour and more water, but that's another recipe. This is Pan de'Este. You can use this bread the same way you'd use any other rustic country loaf. It's great with soup, it's great for sandwiches. But one of my favorite things to do is make a simple grilled cheese. I actually have an amazing Italian grilled cheese recipe in my cookbook. Yes, shocker, in Italy, we do have our version of grilled cheese. It's called Mozzarella in Carrozza.
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