Italian bread - does anyone have a recipe?

In Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno's book, Bread, there's a recipe that sounds like just what you're looking for. Called "Pane Casalingo (Italian Household Bread," it uses a slightly soured starter to provide the taste you're describing.

It's rather long, so see if you can track it down. If not, I'll type it out.

Out of curiousity I did a search under Pane Casalingo. Most of the hits are, unfortunately, in Italian. But there were several in English, almost all of which translate it as "Home Baked Bread."

I found the Treuille/Ferrigno recipe, though, at this blog: http://rosas-yummy-yums.blogspot.com/2008/06/pane-casalingo-pain-italien.html

I don't care for the pale blue typeface used. But it beats typing out the recipe.

The recipe fronm the link KY posted uses a type of preferment (the writer called it a "starter") called a poolish which is very common in French baking, and the recipe itself, no matter what it's called in Sao Paolo, Brazil, is simply pain au poolish in St. Paul, Minnesota -- not to mention the rest of the world. 

While using a poolish is much the way I go about making these types of bread, I'm a little non-plussed.  With Italian breads you usually see a drier preferment called a biga, rather than a poolish.  Not that it makes much difference.

I think of the use of preferments in artisinal loaves as intermediate or at least advanced-beginner baking.  It takes a lot of "touch" to get a good texture.  If you do look at KY's link, you can see that the bread there has too dense a crumb.   It really should have been more open.

BDL

If you do look at KY's link, you can see that the bread there has too dense a crumb. 

I thought the same thing, BDL. But the original poster asked about a dense bread.   Specifically, what was asked for was a bread that is "sour and heavy." And this one meets those requirements.

I'm glad to see you finally concede that bigas and poolishes are not synonyms, but refer to preferments that have different levels of hydration.

The problem with both those words is that there are technical definitions for them, but many preferments are more or less like one or the other, but not exactly so. The "starter" in this bread, for instance, is actually about halfway between a true poolish and a biga. So, because it's more poolish-like than biga-like, calling it a poolish is OK in practical terms.

But, as you note, the name doesn't really matter all that much.

Sirlene: If you try this recipe, and it's not sour enough for you, let the preferment sit longer. You can leave it at room temperature for up to 36 hours. If you want it even more sour, you'll have to feed it.

But don't assume that longer is better. Try it with 12 hours first. If that's not sour enough, go 24 hours. Etc.

Sirlene, please let us know how it works out---good or bad.

Ya gotta love it when a plan comes together. Glad it worked out for you.

Next time you might try subbing honey for the malt, and see how that works out for you.

I have been using the recipe that is included in this article, "Bread Baking With Sponges."

 

It has worked perfect for me everytime with a 9 to 10 hours preferment here in Ohio, USA. You in South America would probably need a shorter time.