29 March 2013

Pane alla Zucca or Pumpkin Bread for Easter 2013

Officially, according to the calendar, spring is here, but it seems that winter has made a comeback with plans to stick around.  Easter is early this year and it seems that the real color, aside from a few primula and purple phlox,  comes from Easter decorations.  Store window dressings are colorfully extravagant, while colorfully wrapped Easter eggs festoon the grocery stores and market. I guess that will just have to do till spring blooming gets fully underway. 

 Colorful Italian chocolate Easter eggs on display at the Pinerolo market

This year in addition to that bread and other I am going to make Pumpkin bread or Pane alla zucca. It is  not a sweet quick bread like most of us from the US think of, but a yeasted bread that replaces the water in the recipe with pumpkin puree.  It's a colorful and flavorful bread that will help me use up the last pumpkin of last season that is need off being used before nature has it's way with it.  When I saw this being made on our local cooking show they hollowed out the center and filled it with some cooked broccoli and pancetta. If made into small loaves, it could be a soup or dip holder, but that is not what I am going to do. I'm looking forward to thick slabs of colorful bread. This year I decided to make and bake a full load of various breads the night before Easter in our wood fired oven. Not only will we have plenty of bread for the Easter feast, I 'll have some loaves to send home with our cousins.  I'll make some normal daily sourdough bread and add in some specialty breads for Easter. I am going to do a Casatiello Napoletano, because not only is it delicious it looks great with the whole eggs in their shell baked on top. You can find my recipe to it here.
My home made Casatiello Napoletano

This bread is best made with dense fleshed pumpkins or squash.  I made this loaf in the photo with butternut squash. So not really a pumpkin bread the winter squash varieties are so mixed up and interchangeable, suffice it say that a dense orange fleshed squash or pumpkin is what you are looking for. I will be using what is called here a Mantua squash, but as best as I can place it, it is some variety of kabocha squash, probably of the delica variety.  It is a smaller but dense squash that keeps well all winter, but now, it's time to use it and I think it will be a welcome addition to the bread basket.  

Pane alla Zuccca

It's pretty easy to make if you know what you are looking for in the way of rising. If you use the commercial yeast, it should be a one day bread if you start in the morning. If using sour dough it may take longer. I don't mind the longer rises, as I think it develops the flavor of the bread, so take you pick, but do try making this bread. It has a delicate flavor and beautiful color that is sure to please. 
Butternut squash chunks being steamed

Pane alla Zucca 

 My adapted recipe of Gabriele Bonci recipe

Ingredients:  

  • 10c /2.2 # / 1 kg flour I used a high gluten flour that is called manitoba here in Italy
  • 3/4c / 7 oz / 200g sour dough or livieto madre -- I refreshed mine the night before so that it was quite active  
  • or for secure results use some commercial yeast
  • 7 g yeast, dry instant
  • 3 3/4c / 1 1/2 # / 700g pumpkin/ winter squash pulp, cleaned*
  • 2 tsp Salt (q.b.)
  • Poppy seeds, optional for topping

Method:

  • If you are using a dense squash and are going to steam it, then peel and deseed your pumpkin or squash. Weigh it to make sure you still have enough . Cut the squash into chunks and steam it till soft.  Run the pulp through a food mill, ricer, or food processor.
  • If you are baking your squash, weigh your pumpkin to know what amount you have and cut the squash into slabs with the peel still on. Bake in the oven till soft. Scrape flesh off the peel and run the pulp through a food mill, ricer, or food processor.
  • Add the salt to the pumpkin either when cooking or when turning it in to a puree.
  • Measure or weigh out your flour into a large bowl.
  • Add the cooked prepared pumpkin pulp to the flour.
  • Add the dry yeast or sour dough
  • Mix together first with a spoon or spatula till a rough dough forms. You can continue to mix it in the bowl with your hands in till smooth adjusting the flour or liquid if needed. I like to finish mixing and kneading on the generously floured table. Mix and gingerly knead till the dough is smooth and pliable.
  • Lightly oil your bowl add the dough turning to oil the entire dough, cover with plastic wrap ,and set in a warm place to rise for about 5-6 hours.
  • Once the dough has risen well and is full of air and feels well risen, turn out of the bowl onto the table. Cut into two pieces. Lightly form the bread into to loaf rounds, tucking your ends underneath, being careful not to deflate the bread too much.
  • Dip the smooth top of each loaf into a bowl of water and then lightly press the wet dough into a bowl of poppy seeds.
  • Place the seeded side up on a baking tray. I usually use a silicon pad or baking paper to keep the bread from sticking to the tray. Let the loaves rise a little longer if you think they need it. Otherwise, with a pair of kitchen scissor, cut four gashes in the top in a circle to form a top knot. And if you like make 4 cuts with the scissors around the outside and through the sides top to bottom to make large petals.
  • Bake in a very hot oven. I usually start my oven at the highest temperature. Once it comes up to temperature. I spray the oven with water to form some steam and then quickly put the loaves in. I turn the heat down to 375*F (190*C) and bake the loaves for about 30-40 minutes. I have a convection oven and it does;t always take that long. Sometimes it is only 25 minutes. When the bread looks a golden brown and has a hollow sound when thumped, the bread should be done.
  • Let cool a while before slicing so the texture is not crushed. Breath deep and enjoy the bready wonderfulness before devouring.
* Cooks Notes
  • This recipe is originally in metric measures, so when adapting to cups it sometimes takes a little adjusting to get the right amount for your ingredients.
  • If I am using dense fleshed winter squash or pumpkins I will cut up it up into chunks and  steam them till soft and then puree them by using a ricer or food mill. 
  • If I have some of the larger varieties of pumpkins or squash that are sometimes stringy and very watery, I might consider baking them in the oven to reduce the liquid and intensify the flavor. Either way if you find your dough too stiff you can always add a bit of water or if the dough is too wet, then add a tad more flour. Bread is like that, so don't be afraid. Knead on.
Pumpkin or Squash Bread

15 March 2013

Back in the U.S. of A and Bagnèt Verde

As you can see, I have been away for awhile from my poor little neglected blog. I have been visiting in the US trying to see everyone and everything that I can as my visits are few and far between. As much as I love living in Italy and all of my friends and family here, I do miss my American family and friends. With my hectic schedule attempting to take it all in, I didn't seem to find any time to share here on my Bella Baita View, so today I will remedy  that. 
Snowshoeing in Frisco and Skiing Copper Mt Colorado
I have three brothers and their children scattered throughout the states and I was blessed in that I was able to see most of them. Along the way I was also able to spend some time in Summit County in Colorado, which I still consider my last home in America. Fortunately for me, I still have a lot of friends making the visit all the more sweet. I got to do a little snowshoeing and skiing as well as chatting and sipping beverages with friends. The world around,  we all do enjoy our "catching up" over food and drinks. This trip was no exception. My friends Mary and John, were kind enough to open their home to my friends for a potluck one night so we could all do a bit of catching up while we sampled each others food and drink.
Friends at the potluck
Since my hosts were working the day of the party I took the opportunity to do a bit of cooking, using seasonal vegetables and making some dishes vegetarian and vegan with some traces of  Piemontese influence in the various dishes. To provide a protein or meat dish that I could make ahead so as not to be busy when everyone arrived, I braised a beef roast and served up the room temperature slices with a classic Piemontese sauce, salsa verde. I also made green cabbage rolls filled  with spicy sausage and covered with a marinara sauce. Vegan cabbage rolls made with Chinese cabbage, as it was more similar to Savoy cabbage, which I couldn't get, and filled with mixed quinoa, tempeh bacon and a sweet fruit and vegetable relish begging to be used up in the fridge. I grilled some eggplant slices and filled the with firm tofu that had been sautéed up with garlic and 2 colors of kale  and covered with the marinara sauce. I added some of my home made focaccia to go along with a great selection of Wisconsin cheeses, many made by small producers from the Devils Head area, thanks to a great gift from my Wisconsin friend Marcia. We had met up in Chicago for lunch and she gifted me with a fabulous treasure trove of artisan cheeses. Everyone loved them. There were a lot of great dishes brought along to share but I got so busy chatting I forgot to take photos, so you'll just have to believe me. 
Potluck buffet
A great dish for Easter lunch or brunch, plated or on a buffet anytime, is the braised beef slices warm or room temperature, served with the salsa verde. This green sauce is a garlicky punch that usually finds itself served alongside the beloved bollito misto, or mixed boiled meats that is so popular here in Piiedmont and other parts of Italy. Often when we enjoy Easter lunch with my in-laws, the evening meal, after the traditional "passeggiata", or walk in the neighborhood after groaning through lunch, we have a simple bollito misto accompanied with both green and re sauce.  So here is my version based on my mother in-laws, which can vary depending on taste or what's on hand. It's great on any type of simple meat that adds just the right amount of zip and brightens up the plate. Adjust the amounts to suit your palette to make it your own.

 Bagnèt Verde Piemontese or 

Green Sauce or "Bath" Piemontese Sauce

1-2 large fistfuls of parsley, washed and dried
2 garlic cloves
2 whole or 4 fillets of anchovies in salt, cleaned  (in oil if you can't find those in the salt)*
1 T capers in salt, washed to remove the salt
1 hard boiled egg **
2 c (bicchieri) olive oil
1/2 c (bicchiere) vinegar, white wine, red wine or apple cider all are nice 
salt if needed to taste

The easy way would be to buzz it all up in the food processor, but my mother in-law would not approve as it would not have enough texture. 
I hand chop all the various ingredients fine or sometimes I use a mezzaluna (curved knife with two handles) to get a uniform texture. 
I place all of the chopped ingredients in a bowl and mix the oil and vinegar in to taste adjusting any of the ingredient quantities if I feel it needs more or the flavor isn;t well blended.

Serve at room temperature. This will keep a few days in the refrigerator also, so you could make it ahead of time. 
Spoon liberally over your cooked meats and enjoy. 

** Some make the sauce with the egg yolk only and use a slice of soft white bread chopped uo to thicken. Our family is more practical and we add the whole boiled egg, chopped fine.
* Anchovies and capers that are preserved have more flavor once the salt is removed than the anchovies in oil or capers in vinegar. You may need to adjust the seasoning depending on which variety of these two ingredients you use. Do not add any salt without tasting first and you might want less vinegar if your capers were preserved in vinegar. 


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