Cooking Recipe Piccia Calabrese (Calabrian Bread)
Recipe Ingredients
Directions
Recipe by: Carol Field - The Italian Baker Refrigerate the Biga until
cold. stir the yeast into the water in a small bowl; let stand until
creamy, about 10 minutes. Saute the mushrooms briefly in the oil and
let cool. Roughly chop the tomato, mushrooms, anchovy, capers,
onions, artichoke, pickles, and red peppers in a food processor
fitted with the steel blade. Remove to another bowl. Process the
oregano, flour, salt, and pepper with 5 or 6 pulses to mix. Place the
cold starter and the lard over the dry ingredients. With the machine
running pour the dissolved yeast through the feed tube as quickly as
the flour can absorb it. Add the vegetable mixture and process just
until combined. Finish kneading by hand on a well-floured surface,
sprinkling with 1/2 to 2/3 cup additional flour as needed, until
elastic, moist, and velvety.
First Rise: Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic
wrap, and let rise until doubled, 1 to 1
1/2 hours.
Shaping and Second Rise: Shape the dough on a floured surface into 1
large or 2 smaller round loaves by rolling the dough first into a
taut log, then shaping it into a round loaf. The dough will be
slightly sticky; sprinkle the dough and the work surface with flour
while shaping it. Place each loaf on a peel sprinkled with cornmeal,
cover with a slightly dampened towel, and let rise until doubled,
about 50 minutes.
Baking: Thirty minutes before baking, heat the oven with baking
stones in it to 425F. Just before baking, cut an even slash around
the shoulder of the loaf or 3 slashes across the top with a razor.
Sprinkle the stones with cornmeal and slide the loaves onto the
stones. bake, spraying 3 times with water in the first 10 minutes,
for 45 minutes. Cool on racks.