Panini all’olio

A while ago I dug out my Italian Home Baking book by Gino D’Acampo for what (I think) was the first time, having picked it up for a bargainous £1 at a book fair in University of Nottingham’s Students’ Union building a couple of years ago.

I tried something reasonably simple – pane tuscano – and you can read here about how that worked out. It’d been a really long time since I’d even attempted to bake bread, and I was keen to try it again – so I did!

I like baking bread. Mainly because, so long as you’ve got a bag of strong white flour and some dried yeast in your pantry, you don’t need to pop out for many – if any – extra ingredients.

It’s an inexpensive way of practising different baking techniques, and if it goes wrong, you’ve only wasted like 50p (although is it really a waste when you’ve learnt so much? Jury’s still out on that one). As someone who tends to muck these things up, that’s pretty important to me!

Anyway. Yesterday I had a go at Gino’s panini all’olio. As he explains in his book, while we associate the word ‘panini’ with delicious toasted sandwiches it’s actually used in Italy to refer to any kind of bread roll. This recipe is flavoured a little with extra virgin olive oil, but overall only contained five ingredients: flour, yeast, oil, milk, and water. Oh, and a little salt – six!

After my previous bread baking attempt I made sure to knead the dough really thoroughly and give it plenty of time to prove. It still didn’t seem to quite double in size, but still grew a lot – hopefully I did it right!

I’m pretty pleased with the results, particularly the colour of the crust (which was a happy accident). After spending the day by myself cleaning, planning my meals for the week and doing a big grocery shop, there was no more satisfying way to round off the weekend than by filling my flat with the yummy smell of baked bread.

Pane toscano (Tuscan bread)

Is there any smell more welcoming than freshly baked bread? I wonder how many baking related posts open with that exact phrase. Well, here’s one more.

Baking is something that comes from the same place as crafting. Crafts, whether you’re knitting jumpers or sewing cushions, aren’t something you necessarily do for the end product; you can pick up a jumper, or cushions, or whatever you’re making anywhere.

The real reason you do it is for the sheer love of it. For that little (or sometimes, pretty huge) glow of pride you get when you look at something you’ve made, with your hands.

And the same goes for baking. You can grab a loaf of bread from your local shop – in fact, I only have to walk for about 2 and a half minutes to my nearest Sainsburys – but truly, it’s not about the bread.

And after spending my Bank Holiday Sunday at the Great Food and Drink Festival at Nottingham Castle I felt quite inspired – and er, to be honest, more than a little tipsy. So, the next day I rolled up my sleeves and dug out Gino D’Acampo’s Italian Home Baking.

Despite having owned it for years, I’d never cooked anything from this book – so I chose one of the first, and simplest, recipes: pane toscano, a traditional Tuscan bread. When it comes to food I like to get the basics right before I get cocky, so this seemed like a good place to start.

I was so pleased with how it turned out. I think I should have kneaded it a little better, but otherwise it looked, and tasted, great!

I was especially chuffed with the crust. Gino recommended spritzing the sides of the oven with water to create steam, but lacking a spray bottle I had a search around online for other ideas.  I found you could get the same effect by placing a metal pan in the bottom of the oven while it heats up and, when putting in the bread to bake, pouring a glass of hot tap water into the pan. It worked a treat!

I’ve a lot to learn when it comes to bread baking, but after proudly slicing into my very first loaf (and slathering a chunk in butter) I know I’ll be back for more. Hope everyone else enjoyed their Bank Holiday weekend!