 No salt in this dough During our Artisan Bread Course Tuscany we make one bread with no salt. There's a myth floating around the internet that bread won't rise without salt. If you've ever been to Florence and eaten their saltless bread, you know it can't be true. But we decided to test it in the lab with our master baker Stefano Gatti. You can see the excellent results in the photo above.  The madia. A handy piece of furniture. You mixed your dough and left it to rise in the box with a hinged top. In the bottom cupboard you stored your flour and utensils. But in the past did a woman living in Lucca Province add salt to her bread? Lucca was never part of the Florentine Republic. With a couple of short exceptions, it was only in 1799 that it fell prey to foreign powers. In 1859 it finally became part of Tuscany. We have our own customs, and one of those is to add salt to bread. I quizzed Eugenia who owns our village shop. When she was little, she used to climb up on a stool and watch her mother kneading the dough in the madia. She couldn't remember about the salt. At that point in my investigations her sister-in-law, who is in her late 80s, walked in. Yes, everyone added salt. No doubt at all. They knew that Florentine bread was sciocco (saltless). Totally different from their own, which needless to say, is much better.  Paolo Magazzini's 60-year-old madre lives in a pot in a cupboard in his bakery where he produces the potato bread of the Garfagnana. The absence of lievito madre (sourdough starter) in bread made at home has also been a puzzlement to me. Every mamma who I've made bread with has used fresh cake yeast. Finally I found out. Eugenia, now in her 70s, remembers every evening standing on that stool watching her mother refresh her lievito madre. Proof at last that the tradition has been lost, at least around me, in the recent past. I'm happy to report that there's much greater interest recently in bread made with ancient grains, wholemeal flour and lievito madre.  We learned much more than just about salt from Stefano's 40 years' experience of baking and his passion for sourdough. In case you're wondering, like I did, where the salty myth came from, Stefano had the answer. Although salt kills some of the yeast, chemically it creates a stronger gluten matrix which in turn is able to hold more of the carbon dioxide produced by the remaining yeast. So, if you don't add salt, the dough still rises, but will be closer grained. Another baker who teaches our course told us that by law he is only allowed to add up to 1.2% salt to his bread, but that's enough to keep it from being sciocco and to keep us distinct from the Florentines. If you want to learn more about bread (with and without salt), starter doughs from stiff to liquid, from biga to poolish, flat griddle breads and the Slow Food Presidium potato bread of the Garfagnana, sign up for our Artisan Bread Course Tuscany.
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Rhonda Gothberg, a goat farmer and cheesemaker from Washington State, USA, joined us on the Artisan Bread Course Tuscany this year. She shared wonderful commentary and photos online during the course and has allowed us to share them with you in this blog post. We have put together her comments and photo captions below. Enjoy! First a note from us:  We bought our aprons from the Real Bread Campaign. A proportion of the price goes to support the Campaign. You can help too. We encourage you to Google their website and join. Rhonda had travelled around Italy before joining the course, which began in Hotel Park Regina, Bagni di Lucca.  Arrived at our hotel. It’s an old classic. Maybe not for everyone but I like it. Very friendly desk help to me, the newbie. Sourdough bread making today with Chef Damiano at Fattoria Sardi. We were also treated to lunch there. We go back tomorrow to bake the bread and another lunch. Oh my goodness...all around excellent.  One of the first wait periods.  Chef Damiano and Erica, founder and director of Sapori & Saperi Adventures and designer of our course.  Chickpea bread with tomato and peppers.  This was one of three good wines with lunch.  We made these flatbreads with sourdough starter and some salt. Filled with a cod mousse concoction.  White ragu with ‘barnyard choice’ for meat: chicken, rabbit, and I’m not really sure what else.  This little potato crispy was fantastic. I said I’ve never met a potato I didn’t like.  Zucchini and eggplant with a pepper sauce.  After lunch before adding potato.  A meringue dessert with a sorbet and amaretto syrup. We had this during a bread wait. A highlight today is a visit with Carlo. He’s 85 years old. His family has been blacksmithing for over 500 years. Sadly, no one is coming up behind him. This place is fascinating! It is run completely on water power. Such a skilled master artisan. We were all mesmerized.    Carlo at work  Look at the centuries of hands worn on this water lever to operate the hammer.    Cappuccino in the courtyard looking at a village on the hill. I love these little villages. So many lives and stories they hold. Today we worked with Chef Damiano again and got our bread baked from yesterday. We then had a tour of Fattoria Sardi vineyards and wine areas. We learned to make our own sourdough starter. Then another fabulous lunch. After that we visited a farmer who grows ancient varieties of wheat. A brief rest at the hotel then out to dinner for pizza and a beer.  My own loaf awaiting baking.  Starter making  Biodynamic vines  Wine making vessels   The bread came out quite good.  Funny story to this one. Chef with Irish class participant.  We learned to cool the loaves on the side.  Chef Damiano and our esteemed team we got to work with.  Pizza and a beer to finish the day. We learned to make these yeasted flat breads [Ed.--fogaccia leva di Gallicano] yesterday. These are made on traditional flat iron sort of griddles. Some call the pan testi but there are other names [Ed.--cotte in Gallicano] depending on the village tradition. Our hosts have been best friends since birth. What a duo! The ensuing lunch with this traditional food was really good. It is served with a local bean and sausage ‘soup’ [Ed.--fagioli all'uccelletto, a traditional Tuscan bean stew]. Then they taught us a version made with chestnut flour [Ed.--necci] and rolled around fresh ricotta. After this, we went to another village to learn the same technique for one with no yeast or rise, a mix of flour and cornmeal [Ed.--criscioletta of Cascio], with strips of pancetta cooked into it. Needless to say no one was hungry for dinner.  Placed on edge to cool.  Tools for the flatbreads  All meals have cheeses.  All meals have meats. [Ed.—This one is salame toscano.]  Lunch with our mentors A flour mill that is still driven by water. Note that the water wheels are horizontal. They made the flours for our flatbread class.  They were milling while we were there.  I think he said this is how they tension to control the grind consistency. [Ed.—This is how they control how many grains are fed onto the millstone. The fineness of the grind is controlled by raising or lowering the top stone.]  The wheel working today is behind this one but is the same size. Then on to more beautiful places.  Cascio  Barga  The duomo of Barga Rhonda was unable to take part in the final day of the Artisan Bread Course Tuscany. If she had she would have learned about the Slow Food Presidium Garfagnana potato bread with Paolo Magazzini. With a visit to Paolo's farro polishing machine and free range beef cattle during gaps in bread making. Topped off with a lunch cooked by Paolo's wife!
This was all part of the Artisan Bread Course Tuscany, which will be taking place again from 11–16 February. It used to be in July, but it's too hot now to do anything, much less bake bread. Find out more here. If you landed here by chance and would like to be notified of future posts, you can sign up here. If you’d like periodic news about our tours and courses, sign up here. |
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