Basil & Red Capsicum Pugliese
"A delicious-sounding recipe for bread from “The Basic Italian Cookbook” by Lesley Pagett, which I found on Australian chef Huey's website. I have not made this yet, but look forward to doing so. I would be inclined to add some garlic and some halved black olives. The cooking time below does not include the 21/2 hours resting time."
- Ready In:
- 1hr 5mins
- Ingredients:
- 9
- Yields:
-
2 loaves
ingredients
- 1 1⁄2 kg unbleached flour
- 1 tablespoon dried yeast
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 bunch basil leaves, chopped
- 150 g red capsicums, roasted, finely chopped
- 3 2⁄3 cups water, lukewarm
- 2⁄3 cup olive oil
- plastic wrap
directions
- Mix together the 1.5 kg flour, yeast, salt and sugar.
- Add the basil, roasted capsicum, lukewarm water and oil. Mix well and then knead to form a softish dough, adding a little more water if needed.
- Then knead the dough on a lightly floured workbench. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for about 2½ hours or until it has doubled in size.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured workbench and divide it in half. Form the into loaves and place them on a lightly oiled oven tray. Brush them with water and set them aside for about another hour, or until they have increased in size by about 50%.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Then brush the loaves with water, sprinkle with a little flour and cook in the oven for about 45 mins (until they sound hollow when you tap the bottom of the loaf).
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Reviews
-
I only made 1/2 the recipe and it easily made two large round loaves. I followed the ingredients exactly and it had a wonderfully warm and comforting flavor. Like other people have mentioned, I could easily see it having some garlic and/or oregano, maybe even some rosemary. Heck, I would even be inclined to roast other kinds of peppers, like jalapeños. DEFINITELY A KEEPER!! -
This is a very nice and flavorful bread! I halved the recipe to make 1 loaf, used a fresh red bell pepper instead of roasted, and added a little garlic. This bread was easy to make and baked up beautifully. Thanks for posting this recipe! -
This is the best and was wonderful with Tortellini Tomato Spinach soup recipe#35988, but I think it would be wonderful with any Italian meal. I was a bit leary about this recipe as I wasn't familiar with this type of bread and also had some problems with the conversion of the ingredient measurements. I used 8 cups of flour (plus some for the board and kneading)--I used 3 cups of King Arthur white whole wheat and the rest all purpose flour. I also used a whole red bell pepper, which looks so pretty in the bread along with one package of fresh basil (definitely could have used more basil though). I thought that next time I may add a bit of garlic (about 3-4 cloves) and some oregano. This makes two huge round loaves--which is perfect as we will also be having this with some Minestone. Thanks for sharing this very interesting bread recipe (which can be very adaptable to adding other herbs and veggies, along with other flours) which we will be having again soon.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
July 2008 update: VERY happy to be back on Zaar after about a two year absence due to having had no internet connection at home, and having been too unwell for a time so that getting re-connected wasn't even a priority!
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<br>And really looking forward to getting back into the Zaar world and connecting again with the many wonderful people I knew before, and new people, of course!
