BREAD

Bread is the most important Italian food. We cannot eat without it and we should like to tell you how we made it and other information

Bread is a staple food prepared by baking a dough of flour and water. It is also popular around the world and is one of the world's oldest foods.

The virtually infinite combinations of different flours, and differing proportions of ingredients, has resulted in the wide variety of types, shapes, sizes, and textures available around the world. It may be leavened (aerated) by a number of different processes ranging from the use of naturally occurring microbes to high-pressure artificial aeration during preparation and/or baking, or may be left unleavened. A wide variety of additives may be used, from fruits and nuts to various fats, to chemical additives designed to improve flavour, texture, colour, and/or shelf life.

Bread may be served in different forms at any meal of the day, eaten as a snack, and is even used as an ingredient in other culinary preparations. As a basic food worldwide, bread has come to take on significance beyond mere nutrition, evolving into a fixture in religious rituals, secular cultural life, and language.

HISTORY

Bread shop, tacuina sanitatis from Northern Italy, beginning of 15th century

Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods. Evidence from 30,000 years ago in Europe revealed starch residue on rocks used for pounding plants. It is possible that during this time, starch extract from the roots of plants, such as cattails and ferns, was spread on a flat rock, placed over a fire and cooked into a primitive form of flatbread. Around 10,000 BC, with the dawn of the Neolithic age and the spread of agriculture, grains became the mainstay of making bread. Yeast spores are ubiquitous, including the surface of cereal grains, so any dough left to rest will become naturally leavened.

There were multiple sources of leavening available for early bread. Airborne yeasts could be harnessed by leaving uncooked dough exposed to air for some time before cooking. Pliny the Elder reported that the Gaulsand Iberians used the foam skimmed from beer to produce "a lighter kind of bread than other people." Parts of the ancient world that drank wine instead of beer used a paste composed of grape juice and flour that was allowed to begin fermenting, or wheat bran steeped in wine, as a source for yeast. The most common source of leavening was to retain a piece of dough from the previous day to use as a form of sourdough starter.

In 1961 the Chorleywood bread process was developed, which used the intense mechanical working of dough to dramatically reduce the fermentation period and the time taken to produce a loaf. The process, whose high-energy mixing allows for the use of lower protein grain, is now widely used around the world in large factories. As a result, bread can be produced very quickly and at low costs to the manufacturer and the consumer. However there has been some criticism of the effect on nutritional value.

Recently, domestic bread machines that automate the process of making bread have become popular.

How to prepare the typical Riccia’s loaf

INGREDIENTS for 4 people

 500 g. flour

 20 g. of fresh yeast

 250 ml. of water

 Two tablespoons of olive oil

 10 g. of salt

Dissolve the yeast in five tablespoons of warm water (the temperature should be neither too low, otherwise the yeast will not have the right push to inflate the dough, and  not too high, otherwise the live cultures contained in the yeast are killed) and add 80 g. flour and let it sit for an hour in a warm place.

After this time, pour the remaining flour, put the loaf in the center and slowly pour two glasses of warm water in which previously oil and dissolved salt were added (with this process the salt is not put in direct contact with the yeast, as it would burn its cells and would make a high percentage of inactive yeast).

Knead the dough with your hands rather vigorously, until it 'does not stick more' to work plan (at least 10 minutes lifting it up and making it fall firmly on the work surface, stretching it and reassembling ball: Repeat each of these operations several times) the dough will be ready when it results smooth and shows air bubbles.

Then shape the dough into a ball, a slit in the surface with a screwdriver and place in a large floured bowl, cover with a damp towel and place it in a warm, draft-free air until it will not double its  volume: it takes from three to four hours, depending on the season (a good gimmick is keep it to rise in the preheated oven and then turned off), the rise and' when finished, sticking a finger in the dough there remains the impression.