• SULibraries on October 20, 2025

  641.865 C759p (LOU)

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Basic bread dough

  • Ganga108 on November 06, 2022

    Terrific dough. I made it one evening and left to rise overnight in the fridge.3-4 hours to come back to room temp. (I am not sure I will do this again - it saves time in the morning having to knead the dough, but it takes so long for the dough to get back up to temp.) The bread was terrific, and we ended up making our evening meal to feature the bread.

• Breadsticks- plain (Grissini)

  • Ganga108 on December 21, 2022

    Beautiful dough! The weights and volume amounts in the recipe don't match - 2 cups bread flour weigh much more than 250g in my kitchen - I went with the weights. The water was just about right, perhaps I used just a smidgen more - working by feel rather than accurate measures. He does not say how thick to roll out - I went by intuition and indeed it made 24 grissini. I do love this book!

• Parmesan breadsticks (Grissini al Parmiggiano)

  • Ganga108 on March 25, 2023

    Gennaro's grissini are all wonderful, and quite easy/quick to make - but keep in mind the baking takes 50mins. It is worth it. I use the weight measurements as there is a little discrepancy between the volume and weight figures in the recipes (I found out the hard way in one of the recipes). I mix the dough in the food processor with its dough/pastry blades for 4 mins, then about 30 secs manual kneading to bring the dough together nicely. It makes a gorgeous dough. Like my good friend Dillon, I always use what is at hand to mix into the bread dough. Today it was some left-over thyme and a few oiled breadcrumbs from last night. I loved the result. (in fact they are quite addictive) (PS I adore this book.)

• Braided loaf with ricotta and sage (Treccia con ricotta e salvia)

  • Ganga108 on June 11, 2023

    This bread was not as successful as I had hoped - very unusual for Gennaro's recipes. The taste was great, tho, and it was definitely good enough to have with a bowl of soup on a Sunday evening. I probably won't make it again. However it did remind me of a good friend who lives interstate, and who makes bread by hand every day. He uses up anything left over from the day before, incorporating it into the bread - some yoghurt, a sauce, roasted tomatoes, some steamed broccoli, herbs, whatever is on the bench (within reason). His breads are always awesome. I must do more of it.

• Neapolitan peasant bread (Pane cafone)

  • Ganga108 on December 24, 2023

    Making as our bread for xmas '23.

• Tomato loaf (Pane al pomodori)

  • Tinala523 on October 05, 2025

    This came out so pretty! I used Grana Padano cheese in place of parmigiano. Great appetizer!

• Basic focaccia with sea salt (Focaccia al sale)

  • Ganga108 on November 20, 2022

    Easy and delicious! There was no way this was going to cool before it was consumed - eaten very quickly by the tribe.

• Focaccia with garlic and rosemary (Focaccia con aglio e rosmarino)

  • Ganga108 on May 28, 2023

    Every recipe that I have made from this book is perfect - and I've made several each of his breads, focaccia, and pizzas. This recipe is no exception; it's a wonderful focaccia, full of the flavours and aromas of garlic, rosemary and olive oil. I rarely have "go to" recipes as I love to try everything and experiment with different ways. But after honest-to-goodness years of making focaccia (from no-knead in the early days of it becoming popular in Australia, to over-the-top complex ones) Contaldo's recipes are now my go-to recipes. (I will still feel free to vary the toppings/flavourings, but his method is foolproof.) His focaccia recipes are relatively quick to make (not much more than 90 mins including rising times). I found initially that his volume and weight measures didn't match, so I marked his basic focaccia with metric weight measures for the flour I use and yeast I use, and metric volume for the required amount of water for my flour/location.

• Basic pizza dough

  • Ganga108 on December 28, 2022

    Great recipe for pizza dough. I use the weight measurement for flour as I found the cup measurement (for the flour I am using) gives you too much flour. The yeast and water seem correct for the weight measurement. The dough can be placed in the fridge to use on another day. I generally do this before the longer proving, and leave to prove the day I want to make the pizzas.

• Pizza bianca

  • Ganga108 on December 28, 2022

    Of course, a wonderful pizza bianca from Contaldo - I made a salty paste of garlic, green chilli and spring onion (scallion) with evo to spread thinly across the top of the dough before baking. Spicy and delicious. Sprinkled additional salt when I took them out of the oven. I used half the dough and put the other half in the fridge for later this week.

  • Ganga108 on December 31, 2022

    Made again on New Year's Eve here on a beautiful warm evening. This time topped with feta, parmesan and sage leaves - a variation on one of his suggestions.

• Green vegetable pie (Erbazzone)

  • Ganga108 on June 04, 2023

    Best to cook the greens ahead of time, as they need to cool before making the pie. Also the pie needs to cool for 10 or 15 mins after coming out of the oven, so factor this into your planning. The pastry dough is simple and rustic as befits traditional green pies. It came together well but I'd try filo or puff next time. I used chard as the greens. The pie was a great Sunday night casual dinner with soup, salad and some of my tomato-chilli jam. Leftover filling will be made into cheesy pakoras.

• Aniseed and currant ring cake (Buccellato dì Lucca)

  • Lepa on July 20, 2022

    I really enjoyed this simple cake. It's perfect for breakfast, as it's more like a sweet bread than cake (not very sweet). We ate it warmed up with a thick slick of butter. Some notes on making the cake: I added a bit of salt because I don't like cakes or bread with no salt. I added a pinch but I am guessing about 1/2 tsp would be ideal. Also, this rose slowly and it took about 2.5 hours to rise. I thought my yeast had gone bad but I think it's because it is an enriched bread with lots of fruit so it takes more time.

• Salt Sugar and I

  Everything looks so beautiful in this cookbook, a little rustic but it has home and tradition all over it - plus review of Pane Cafone, Neapolitan Peasant Bread.

  Full review