Comfort

Cheese and Onion Tear and Share Bread

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

Serves 8

500 Grams Strong White (bread) Flour

1 Sachet dried yeast

350Mil Luke warm water

1 1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Onion (cut in half and finely sliced)

125 Grams Grated Cheese (I used 100 Grams of mature cheddar and 25 Grams of parmasan, but use any combination you have)

1 Tsp dried Thyme

Black pepper

1 Tsp Oil

  • Stir the yeast into the luke warm water
  • Add the salt and flour to a large bowl before pouring in the yeast mix and mixing well until it forms a dough
  • If you have a mixer with a dough hook, mix for 5 minutes.  If you don’t, turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes
  • Transfer the dough back to a bowl that has been wiped with a little oil. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and and prove for 1 hour
  • When the dough has proved, uncover and hit it a punch to knock out the air and then form it into a ball
  • Turn onto a floured surface and with a rolling pin (or wine bottle if you don’t have one) roll out the dough into a rough rectangle 12cm x 24cm
  • Sprinkle the surface with the grated cheese, finely sliced onion, thyme and black pepper
  • Roll the dough into a sausage shape (using the long side of the dough)
  • Cut the dough into 8 equal sized slices
  • Line a spring form baking tin with parchment (scrunch the sheet up first, it makes it easier to spread out)
  • Place the slices of dough into the tin in a circle, cover the tin with a tea towel and prove again for 15 minutes
  • Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius
  • Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes until golden brown
  • Serve while still warm (your kitchen will smell amazing)

Ribollita

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I want you to keep an open mind.  When I first heard of this stale bread soup I thought hell no!

However, I had it when I visited Italy and I’m now a total convert, it was one of the best dishes I tried.  Like most popular Italian dishes, this is peasant food, and came about when servants would be given scraps that they would reboil into a soup.  Ribollita is actually more like a stew and is extremely satisfying and the perfect comfort food.  Each family has their own version, but the basic ingredients are a sofritto (this is a base of finely chopped carrots, celery and onion, I whizz mine in a food precessor when I can’t be bothered standing chopping). For the bread part, I used some stale ciabatta I had, other types of bread like French baguette would also work (not sure how ideal sliced white supermarket bread would be).

Italian Grannies save the rind of parmasan to flavour this, but I just added some of the grated cheese. If you want to make this a vegan dish you can swap this out for pine nuts. The beauty of this is that it is the original zero waste recipe.  Basically you use what ever you have and it’s perfect for using up those left over bits in your fridge.  You can also season with the flavours you like.  The original version I tried had fennel seeds, for the version I made at home I used oregano because it’s what I had.  Rosemary or basil would also work well, so feel free to experiment.

Serves 3-4

400 Mil Can Chopped tomatoes or pasatta

400 Mil Can Cannalini beans (set aside half the tin and mash with a fork, this will help mske the ribollita creamy, as with the other ingredients feel free to use whatever type of brand you have)

1/2 Tsp Chilli flakes

1 Tbsp Olive oil

1 Tbsp Tomato puree

100 Grams Stale bread (broken into 3-4cm chunks)

2 Handfuls shredded cabbage (I used savoy cabbage because this is what I had, but kale or cavelo nero also work well in this dish

500 Mil Vegetable stock

2 Carrots (finely chopped)

2 Sticks of celery (finely chopped)

1 Onion (finely chopped)

2-3 Cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

25 Grams Grated Parmasan (plus extra for serving

1 Tbsp Chopped fresh oregano (or 1 Tsp dried herbs)

1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar (or a splash of red wine if you have a bottle open)

Method

  • Heat the oil in a large pot, and gently fry the onion, celery and carrot over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes
  • Add the cabbage and tomato puree and fry for a further couple of minutes
  • Add rest of the ingredients and simmer for another 15-20 minutes before checking the seasoning
  • Ladle into large bowls and sprinkle with some grated parmasan (or whichever cheese you have)