I am so glad that this year we opted to use all our deck pots to plant vegetables and herbs instead of flowers. Well to be correct we did plant flowers and ferns in three hanging baskets. They didn’t seem suitable for a new role.
It is amazing how many times this summer we reached out to our now lush supply of cilantro, Italian parsley, chives and basil. Our deck is on the south side with plenty of sun all day long and plants are just loving it. It is amazing how prolific the basil is. Several times I cut about a third of it and it just keeps powering along and coming back! I really love basil’s fragrance and how it is enough just to wave the hand by its stems, to release its beautiful smell. Out of three small basil plants I planted at the beginning of the summer, I already made two jars of pesto and judging by how quickly it is growing back I will be making another one in a few days. I learned from our elderly Italian neighbors that pesto can easily be frozen and then used later in the year for pasta, salads and other uses. Simply freeze pesto in an ice-cube tray and then wrap each cube individually and store in the freezer.
Tomato, basil and garlic bread is an interesting and colorful variety that can be enjoyed on its own, but also it is great side for barbecued meats and salads. Basil in combination with roasted garlic and oven dried tomatoes imparts a great flavor to this tender, succulent bread.
It does take a little bit of planning since the tomatoes need couple of hours in the oven and garlic needs to be roasted prior to mixing of dough. Once you got that the rest is pretty much a standard routine: mix, ferment for an hour, shape and stuff with tomato, garlic and basil, proof for half an hour and bake 20-25 minutes. Very easy and the bread will make your day!
The recipe has been adapted from Richard Bertinet’s book: “Dough”.
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | 2 1/2 hours |
| Passive Time | 2 1/2 hours |
| Servings |
loaves
|
- 500 g all purpose non bleached flour
- 2 tbsp coarse semolina
- 15 g fresh yeast or substitute with 1 1/2 tsp dry active yeast or 1 tsp instant yeast
- 2 tsp fine sea salt
- 311 g filtered water
- 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil + some extra for drizzling
- 500 g cherry tomatoes or 6-8 larger tomatoes
- fine sea salt
- ground black pepper
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- dried herbs de Provence or little fresh thyme and rosemary
- 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 20 garlic cloves peeled
- fresh basil leaves large bunch
Ingredients
Olive Dough
Oven Dried Tomatoes
Roasted Garlic
Basil
|
|
- Preheat the oven to 100ºC (210ºF), rack in the middle.
- Halve cherry tomatoes (or quarter if using larger tomatoes), place them skin side down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Season tomatoes with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, sprinkle with sugar and a couple of pinches of dried herbs de Provence.
- Dry the tomatoes in prewarmed oven for about 2 hours. Tomatoes will be dry, but soft and will weigh about half of their initial weight before drying.
- Let cool to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC (355ºF), rack in the middle.
- Over medium heat (5 out of 10) preheat medium size oven proofed skillet. Add to it olive oil, butter and sugar. After the butter melts add garlic cloves and toss them in the mixture.
- Transfer the skillet to prewarmed oven and roast for 20-25 minutes or until garlic cloves are soft and caramelized. The garlic cloves should show no resistance to inserted sharp tip of a knife.
- Remove the skillet from the oven and let cool to room temperature while leaving garlic cloves in their juices.
- Drain the juices and dry garlic cloves on a paper towel.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl add flour and semolina, crumble the yeast and rub it into the flour using your palms.
- Add the salt, water and olive oil to the bowl. Using a plastic bench scraper mix the ingredients. With your left hand rotate the bowl counterclockwise while the right hand-held scraper scrapes the inside of the bowl in opposite, clockwise direction. Continue for 2-3 minutes until a shaggy wet mass is formed, without dry bits. Turn over onto a clean counter.
- Using a French slap (or any other method) knead the dough for 5-8 minutes or until the gluten is fully developed. Use a window pane check to confirm full gluten development. You should be able to stretch the dough thin without breaking.
- Form a dough ball, transfer to the lightly floured mixing bowl, cover and keep at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven, rack in the middle, to 260ºC (500º F).
- Flour the counter generously with flour or cornmeal. Using a plastic scraper turn the non sticky side of dough ball (top of the ball) onto the counter.
- Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough and the using your finger tips for prodding spread it gently into 35 x 25 cm (14" x 10") rectangular shape. Brush off excess flour from top of the dough.
- Spread the tomatoes evenly over the dough and press them gently by your fingertips into the dough .
- Repeat the same process with roasted garlic and basil leaves.
- Starting at the longer rectangle side, fold over 1/3 of the dough rectangle into the center, and then fold over the other side's 1/3 and overlap the first fold. The folding process is identical to folding a standard letter sheet of paper so it can fit in the envelope.
- Place the dough roll with the seam down on the counter, tuck under the edges neatly, all the way around.
- Cut the dough roll crosswise into 3 equal pieces.
- Take a middle piece and neatly tuck the dough under one of the cut sides. Place it on oiled baking tray, cut side up.
- Place two other pieces on the oiled baking tray, also cut side up so you can see stuffing of tomatoes, garlic and basil. Cover with lint free kitchen towel and let the dough rise for 30 minutes at the room temperature.
- Reduce oven temperature to 220ºC (425ºF) and bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
- Brush with some olive oil and let it cool completly on a cooling rack.
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