Tuscan Bread

This is the weekend I thought I was going to provide a video of Nona making her lasagna with her sister, Sylvia, visiting from Italy. I promised back in June to do an interview with the Italian sisters making the lasagna since Nona has not written down the recipe. Unfortunately in August, Sylvia’s husband Rogero fell off the roof of his Winnebago, where he went to try to fix the AC unit. He broke his back and had to spend 40 days straight in bed, and was finally able to get up to shower, go to the bathroom, and get put into a body cast. It struck me as odd that the body cast came after the 40 days in bed, but I’m not a doctor. The accident postponed their visit to the United States until next spring.

So far the nearest Nona has told me to exact measurements, was that the first time she made the lasagna, her friend that taught her told her to put “a lot” of hard-boiled eggs in it, so she put in 17. It sounds like a lot indeed, but you haven’t seen her lasagna pan. Now that she knows eggs have cholesterol, she says she puts in less but either way it’s less than an egg per serving. I didn’t even notice any egg, so it really blends together. I did get a recipe for something else today, since she decided to make a new kind of bread (her usual bread does not have a recipe either, but I believe includes semolina flour).

This bread is called Tuscan bread and she showed me the book^[1] where she found the recipe. This bread is slightly denser than her usual, with less air bubbles and a less crumbly texture, but she warns that you probably need to take a day off work to make it.

Biga
1/4 t active dry yeast
1/4 C warm water
3/4 C plus 1 T room temp water
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
Stir yeast into 1/3 cup warm water and let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients to yeast mixture and mix with a wooden spoon 3-4 minutes. The result will be a loose sticky dough.
Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let stand at even room temperature for 2 days. Afterwards, keep refrigerated. The dough will keep for approximately two weeks. Bring to room temperature before using.

Trade Secret: Use a clay baker or place pan of hot water on oven bottom for first 15 minutes of baking.

Tuscan Bread
1 1/4 t active dry yeast
1/4 C warm water
3 C room temperature water
4/5 C or 200 grams Biga
4 1/2 C all-purpose flour
3 C bread flour
1 T + 1 t salt
Stir yeast into 1/4 cup warm water, let stand until creamy. Add remaining water and Biga to the yeast mixture. Add flour and salt, mixing until the dough binds well. Knead dough well, making sure to use enough flour to prevent sticking. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise until tripled in bulk, about 3 hours. Do not punch down.

To shape loaves, use a generous amount of flour on work surface and hands to prevent sticking. Dust dough with flour and cut in half. Flatten dough out and tightly roll lengthwise into a log shape. Flatten out the log and roll tightly from top to bottom. Shape each piece into a ball by slowly stretching top layer from top to bottom (seam-side). Place loaves on baking sheet covered with parchment paper, seam-side down. Cover with a damp towel and let rise until doubled in bulk, about one hour.

Preheat oven to 340. Bake until a deep golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped on the bottom, about 40 minutes.