Food | Page 2 Of 2 | Rebecca TG

3 easy and tasty camping breakfasts – to eat healthy in the morning

1 Comment / 4 September 2022

Camping is starting to finally happen in my life since I get back to Australia, the chances to camp are getting more and the places I have been camping so far are unforgettable each one for a reason.

And guess what my favourite meal is during the camping adventure? Of course the awaking, delicious and pampering morning breakfast.

Here are 3 easy and tasty camping breakfast ideas to start the day in the best way, healthy, with plenty of nutrients, vitamins and all that is needed to provide long-lasting energy and keep you full for hours.

Definitely going to camp in a relaxing, almost empty and fully immerse in nature location is the best deal for me and I guess for most of the people who love to go camping; and one of the most important things, when you do this, is to impact less on the environment that surrounds you.

This post will give you some ideas on what to eat in the morning and so, 3 easy and tasty camping breakfasts to enjoy before your hiking or exploration day. The breakfast can be vegan, vegetarian or non depending on what your diet is like at the moment, or simply what you feel like eating during the nature retreat, holiday or road trip you are experiencing.

3 easy and tasty camping breakfast

What makes camping an unforgettable experience? For sure, building your tent or setting up the caravan, lighting and chilling by the campfire, diving in the stunning location and the nature noises, the friendly neighbours and, very important, the food.

As a nature and food lover and as a chef I have learned through the years that being less impactful on nature is one of the principal facts for me.

So when I go camping, I try to think ahead and plan some of my meals considering the waste, the nutrients intake, my health and of course what the day is going to be like. In case I want to go for a long hike after breakfast, I will need plenty of energy to face the journey and avoid taking extra food with me (fruit and nut bars except).

Try all these 3 easy and tasty camping breakfast ideas and adapt them with your favourite fruits and protein to have even more choices during your adventure.

1 – Overnight oat

First of the 3 easy and tasty camping breakfasts comes the overnight oats, the most simple, stress-free and flavours breakfast I ate the most in the last couple of years.

All you need is:

Rolled Organic Oats
Oat milk or any other
Peanut butter
Seasonal fruit
Mixed seeds

3-easy-and-tasty-camping-breakfast-overnight-oats — _{Photo: The edge combers}

Since I worked in a “breakfast and brunch cafe” in Sydney back in 2019, I started to learn more about oats and so I decided to integrate them into my diet. This simple grain does provide so many benefits that can define the oat as one of the best grains to consume daily.

In fact, Oats provide antioxidants, it lower blood sugar levels, help you to feel full for longer, release skin irritations, promote healthy bacteria in your gut and more..

Simple as the name the overnight oats are prepared the night before, they keep for quite a long time if preserved at the right temperature in a sealed container; so they can be prepared at home by mixing most of the ingredients and then stored in the fridge for 2 to 3 days, in this case, you won’t need to take extra spare ingredients, so you will have more space for other things.

The best to use is for sure the rolled Organic Oats as the consistency and the integrity of the grain itself are kept much better in terms of nutrients and the texture just feels better while eating.

I like to mix my overnights oats with differents ingredients to get the right amount of energy I will need for the day, so for this easy and tasty camping breakfast, I choose to soak together some chia seeds, maple syrup or honey, coconut yogurt, cinnamon and pumpkin seeds.

Once you have this mix then is just so easy to enjoy. A couple of spoons in a bowl, mixed with your favourite fruit and why not some crunchy peanut butter.

2 – Avocado toast

All the time I wake up and fell like having a savoury breakfast, automatically the simplicity of the Avocado toast come to my mind. The same can be done during your camping day.

Simple as it is the ingredients are:

Sourdough bread or any bread your choice
Fresh and soft avocado
Salt and pepper

3-easy-and-tasty-camping-breakfast-avocado-toast — _{Photo: Jamie Vespa MS}

My second choice for the 3 easy and tasty camping breakfasts is Avocado toast. Plain, effortless, bright light green, creamy and rich in flavour the avocado toast can be eaten in the morning as simple as the avocado comes, with some salt and pepper or fully loaded with other ingredients.

Avocados are a source of vitamins C, E, K, and B6, as well as niacin, folate, magnesium and potassium. They are full in monounsaturated fats, high in fibre and so helps to improve your digestion, prevent constipation and last but not least help feel fuller between meals. Even though the consumption shouldn’t exceed 50g daily.

If you have the chance to go to a bakery and buy some wholemeal, grains or seeded sourdough this will be the best way to enjoy your avocado toast as camping breakfast. In case you you can’t by sourdough just go for normal bread as the real flavour comes from the berry fruit its self (yes, avocado is a berry fruit).

To appreciate even more this breakfast you can smash the avocado together with some chopped red onion, lime zest and juice, Himalayan salt, pepper and chilly flakes. In case you feel like upgrading this already nutritional breakfast, picking some extra ingredients is completely up to you, from a fried or scrumble eggs, to cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, smoked tofu and mostly anything which tastes good with avocado and sourdough.

3 – French toast

Sounds like something really-not-camping-breakfast but this is absolutely wrong, french toast is, of course, one of the 3 easy and tasty camping breakfast and I will tell you how to do it in the most simple way and you won’t regret it to have trusted me.

The main ingredients for this breakfast are:

Fruit loaf sourdough or any other thick-cut bread
Eggs
Milk of your choice
Cinnamon
Maple syrup
Fresh fruit

3-easy-and-tasty-camping-breakfast-french-toast — _{Photo: Fresh Of The Grid}

First thing first, depending on whether you are vegan or not, you need only a few ingredients.

Alternative milk is always my choice – I don’t drink milk since I was 13 years old – egg, ideally organic and pastured or free-range, sourdough is best, but also normal bread loaf or even better raisin and cinnamon loaf if you lucky to find it (or to bake it your self with this good recipe).

Starting from the bread, I recommend choosing a whole loaf to slice by yourself as thick as you wish or an already thick sliced one, thus you can soak it for longer into the liquid mixture and the cooking results will be better.

A couple (or 3 if small) of eggs – will be enough for two people or four good slices of sourdough – mix with a cup of oat milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla seeds and the liquid mixture is ready to welcome the bread for 20ish seconds before the cooking process.

3-easy-and-tasty-camping-breakfast-french-toast-ingredients

If you don’t eat eggs, just don’t use them for the mixture it won’t make a big difference and you will love the flavour anyway.

Ready to cook your french toast?

Reheat your non stick-pan, add some coconut oil or plant base butter and start caramelized your previously soaked sourdough. Make sure you get the right cooking checking the crunchiness and the colour of your french toast.

Season them with maple syrup, fruits and icing sugar if you want an extra fancy touch and finally you are ready to eat the best simple and healthy Frech Toast.

So sit with your coffee or orange juice and love eating one of the 3 easy and tasty camping breakfasts before starting your busy day doing anything else.

3-easy-and-tasty-camping-breakfast-espresso-making

If you liked the breakfast ideas and want to have some more or if you have questions and you tried the 3 camping breakfast, I would love to read your comment.

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The best smoky aubergine Pasta with datterini tomatoes confit

8 August 2022

Hey readers, today I will be finally sharing with you my smoky aubergine Pasta with confit datterini tomatoes recipe.

Smoky aubergine, confit datterini tomatoes and ricotta salata.

My love for aubergine (or eggplant) has always been there since I was a child. Parmigiana di melanzane, Pasta alla Norma, my grandma’s stuffed aubergine and babaganoush are just some of the dishes I love to make – and of course to eat – that include aubergine.

In fact this Smoky aubergine Pasta with datterini tomatoes confit it’s the fruit of my love for these simple ingredients, some of the most used ingredients in classic Italian cuisine.

eggplantsalad8 — Photo from “Italian food forever”

About the preparation

With this dish I wanted to break down the ingredients of Pasta alla Norma – tomato sauce, fried aubergine, basil and ricotta salata cheese – by creating a pesto from the chargrilled aubergine, garlic and basil, adding some caramelized confit datterini tomatoes as a garnish and freshly grate on top some ricotta salata.

So here is the recipe for you, to worship your summer lunch with a friend, partner, or maybe to impress your family reunion. Pretty sure kids also will love the fresh flavour of this Pasta.

This recipe is a pretty simple one, it will not take forever to make as the longest process is the cooking time for the datterini tomatoes and chargrilled the aubergine to give them the smoky flavour. If you won’t be able to do this chargrilling process, you can easily use the oven, a gas barbecue or gas burner.

The smoky aubergine Pasta with confit datterini tomatoes is a vegetarian recipe, as the ricotta salata is a dairy product obtained from different, yet animal milk, milk whey but doesn’t usually contain rennet. To make sure when you buy always read the ingredient list. Also, this dish can be vegan, merely dropping the use of the ricotta salata and replacing it with yeast flakes.

The datterini tomatoes confit are made with these bright red, oval-shaped small tomatoes. Originary of Asia but they become very famous in many cuisines, and so in Italy. Either red or yellow variety is perfect for this dish, the amazing sweetness and juiciness will only be appreciated.

To confit the datterini is a simple but not so quick method, of “dring” the fruit to accentuate the flavour. You will just need an oven, seasoning and some patience.

fire roasted eggplant dal indian vegan red lentil 2 — Photo from “Full of Plants”

Smoked aubergine sauce, to give the creaminess to your pasta, will be done on a gas burner and then blitz. The burning process will smoke the eggplant and give the extra hint for the perfect dish.

About the pasta choice, I recon to look for bronze-drawn pasta – trafilata al bronzo – the rugged texture will be mixing amazingly with sauce, the confit tomatoes and the ricotta. I used this organic tagliatelle Seggiano, made with durum wheat from Val d’Orcia, Tuscany. SO NICE

Something about Aubergine

Aubergine is a summer vegetable that reaches the “peak of goodness” between June to September. The usual colour of these vegetables is mostly purple shades, but there are different varieties that come in white, green, yellow and even reddish, and also many distinct shapes.

Raw aubergine can have a bitter taste, which can easily be fixed by washing the fruit properly, cutting them and placing it in a strainer with some coarse salt and a weight on top; after half an hour wash them properly and they will be ready to cook. Also avoid buying soft aubergine, as they will tend to be more bitter if they ripen.

EP 08122015 eggplant hero — Photo from “Bon Appetit”

The taste is not very strong and particular, but it’ll absorb other ingredients flavours and oils so the ways of cooking them are thousands and you won’t get bored if your vegetable garden gives you many.

Last but not least aubergine is a good source of fibre, vitamins B1, B3 and B6, K and minerals such as potassium and manganese. They are high in antioxidants, their consumption may improve heart function and reduce LDL cholesterol, triglyceride and blood sugar levels. Low in calories and is on your 1-5 a day, so can be integrated into your diet easily.

So you will now be ready to make the smoky aubergine pasta with datterini tomatoes confit.

The best smoky Aubergine Pasta with Datterini tomatoes confit

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 2

Cook Time 2 20

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

2 aubergine
5 garlic cloves
½ bunch of fresh Basil
200 g Datterini tomatoes or Cherry tomatoes
1 teaspoon Maple syrup or Muscovado sugar
160 g "Seggiano organic" Tagliatelle
to taste Ricotta Salata
to taste oregano
to taste Extra Virgin Olive oil

Instructions

The longest cooking of this recipe will be for the datterini tomatoes to confit. Preheat the oven to 150°C and start by washing the tomatoes, cut them in half and place them on an oven tray with a reusable silicone baking sheet or parchment paper.
Season it with some oregano, a couple of garlic cloves, salt, a good amount of olive oil and a teaspoon of Maple syrup or muscovado sugar – this will give the tomatoes a more sweet and nutty flavour, thanks to the caramelisation of the sugar -.
Put the tray in the oven and keep the datterini for a couple of hours or until they look dried enough but they are actually not, as your final result will give you juicy and caramelised tomatoes.
Now let's start preparing the smoky aubergine sauce. Wash the fruit and prick them a few times with a pointed knife or a fork, this will allow the smokiness to penetrate the aubergine and so to have a stronger smoked flavour. I decided to use the gas burner method, as it was the easiest one and fastest when I have done the recipe.
Using kitchen tongs, hold the eggplant on the fire hob and turn it when needed, more or less you will be doing this step every 5 minutes, occasionally by being careful the fruit won't catch fire and char completely. Still, the result you want is almost burnt, yet soft inside, with cracked and dry skin.
Once the aubergine are cooked, place them in a metal or glass bowl and cover it with foil or a lid. Cool it down for about 20 minutes or so.
Meanwhile waiting for your smoky aubergine to cool down and your tomatoes are almost ready, place a pot of water to boil.
Peel the aubergine without being so picky to take it all off, some of the skin will give a more smoky flavour to your dish and you won't regret it. Place them in a food processor, or use your hand blender, together with the two garlic cloves, olive oil and the fresh basil. Blitz it till you obtain a smooth and velvety cream, taste it and season it as need it with salt and black pepper. And the smoky aubergine sauce is ready to use.
Your datterini confit is ready to come out of the oven and the pasta is ready to be cooked. As the water boil add the salt and drop the pasta in. The tagliatelle cooking time is 13 minutes, but it won't cook the whole time in the boiling water.
Ready for the fun part?
I love to finish most of the pasta dishes the last 2 to 5 minutes in the frying pan. So make sure your pan is big enough to contain the amount of pasta you are cooking, plus the other 2 ingredients. Make the pan hot and do a quick sofritto with EVO, poached garlic and a poor quantity of the confit datterini.
When the pasta cooking time is just 3 minutes away, drain it, but make sure to keep some of the cooking water, as will be needed to finish the pasta cooking process but inside the frying pan.
With the tagliatelle in the hot pan, add a ladle of the kept water and stir the pasta with tongs. As you were making risotto, let the water absorb into the pasta and so add one more ladle, till the pasta reaches the perfect "al dente" texture.
Time to add your tasty smoky aubergine sauce and the datterini confit to the pasta – keep some for garnish -, giving the last toss and mixing all the ingredients very well.
Plate your beautiful and smoothy pasta on the plate and finish it with some grated ricotta salata – or the yeast flakes – fresh basil leaf and the left tomatoes confit.
Enjoy your Smoky aubergine Pasta and datterini confit with a full bodied red wine such as a Nebbiolo or Brunello di Montalcino.

Keyword aubergine pasta, datterini tomatoes, smoky aubergine pasta

Alternatives

As you might not be able to either cook the aubergine on the fire burner or on the charcoal grill, you can use your oven without problems. Preheat the oven to 200°C, prick the aubergine and place them on a tray. Once the oven is hot, cook them for around 50 minutes or until soft and almost burnt.

In case you won’t be able to find “ricotta salata” in your country, a good substitute is the Feta cheese. The flavour of both is indeed very salty and tasty, but the feta can be slightly stronger, so before sprinkling it on top of your pasta, soak the cheese in water for 30 minutes.

Let me know if you try the recipe and if you liked it. I will be happy to answer your question in case there is some more curiosity.

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Rustic Sourdough bread recipe – easy to make with lievito madre

9 Comments / 31 December 2021

Think about that lovely bakery where you usually buy your sourdough bread loaf. Let the freshly baked bread smell come into your mind. Now picture yourself, into your house, ready to bake your rustic sourdough bread after having followed this easy recipe I’m about to tell you.

Sourdough bread recipes are often seen as difficult and tricky to make from scratch, but after some years of baking experience I came up with this very easy “rustic sourdough bread recipe”.

The process is quite simple to follow and the ingredients are as well easy to purchase. The only ingredient you will need your own it’s the Italian Sourdough starter, here you can find an easy way for the production of your Lievito Madre from zero.

what is Sourdough bread?

It is said, the first civilization that has been using this natural fermentation for making bread goes back somewhere around 3500 B.C. in Ancient Egypt. The refinement techniques and the differences develop through the years, gave us the chance as today, to have this tasteful final product: the Sourdough bread.

In a nutshell, sourdough is a slow-fermented bread. Well known for its characteristics such as a chewy texture on the inside, crunchy crust, with a tangy flavour and a sweet finish.

Other benefits of this final product, compared to supermarket loaves, are for sure the higher digestibility, a longer storage, can be consumed by diabetes suffers (thanks to its low glycemic content) and its aroma and taste are much rewarding.

How to begin

The first important step for this recipe is, of course, to have an Italian sourdough starter or a normal sourdough to be converted as such before starting.

If you have followed my Italian Sourdough easy recipe, you will need to refresh it as usual. So take it out from the fridge and keep it at room temperature (24°-26°c) for one to two hours, just enough so it is not so cool. Take off the top layer and refresh the remaining (for this recipe you will need 150g of refreshed lievito madre, for a kilo loaf), so if you have 150g Italian sourdough, you will need to add 75g of filtered warm water and 150g of flour. Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes, to make it stronger, keep what you need for this recipe and store the remaining back in the fridge after one hour.

After a couple of hours, or until double in size and bubbling texture, the sourdough starter will be ready to use.

rustic sourdough bread recipe

This recipe will make 1,140 grams loaf, so if you believe is a big quantity just half the amount of all the ingredients and you will have a smaller loaf. But trust me you will love the result.

Ingredients

500 grams Type 1 flour
100 grams Semola flour
360 grams of room temperature water
150 grams of refreshed Italian Sourdough starter / Lievito madre
3 grams Malt
12 grams salt
15 grams EVO

Method

The best way to start this dough is by combining the Lievito Madre with water, malt and extra-virgin olive oil. Once you have done this step you can integrate the two flour into it and start to knead roughly (if you have a kneader machine even better). It doesn’t need to be a perfect dough as this will only be the first resting period.

This is called the “autolysis” process and will help to strengthen the gluten and so to make a better final result.

Cover the bowl with a reusable wax wrap or a damp kitchen towel for the following 30 minutes to 1-hour resting. After this time you can finally add the salt and knead it into a smoother dough. Once you reach a softer texture leave it cover for another 20 minutes.

Folding and resting

Now you can start with the folding method, which will help the dough: to strengthen by stretching the gluten strands, to expel the carbon dioxide formed during fermentation and to equalize the dough temperature.

The process is very simple: turn down the dough from the resting bowl into a floured surface, gently pat down the down without removing all the air bubbles. Create the first fold by taking one side of the dough (left or right) and folding it to a third of the way over the rest of the dough. Now from the opposite side, pick up the dough and fold it as a letter, just laying it on top of the previous folding. So you will have now a rectangular dough that needs to be folded two more times. First from the top to a third of the dough again, and then last from the bottom to the fold, having now a square shape. Very important is NOT to incorporate the extra flour you had spread on the surface.

This method is to be done two times every 20 minutes.

When you are done with the last folding, place the dough back into the bowl, but this time with a touch of olive oil or wrapped into a floured kitchen cloth. Now the dough is ready to rest for different hours, depending on the temperature, this can take between 3 to 10 hours.

As the only yeast, we are using is the natural Lievito Madre or sourdough, the process requires more time. But your patience will be rewarded once you will taste this amazing rustic sourdough loaf.

My advice is to let the dough rest in the warmer room of your house, where the temperature can be around 26°- 28° so the rising process can be faster.

Second resting and cooking

When your rustic sourdough bread has doubled up the size, it is then ready to be divided into one or two loaves and shaped as you wish.

Being very gentle move the dough (upside down) from the bowl to a lightly floured surface and start to shape it, round or oval, as you like the most. As I did only one loaf from this recipe I shaped my dough oval. To shape it as such you must be very gentle, as you don’t want to break any air bubbles created with the rising process.

Place the dough on the surface in front of you and stretch the dough almost to create a square out of it, fold it from the top to a third of the dough and the bottom part on top of the first folding. Turn it and shape the bottom gust moving your hands under the dough.

^{Watch the video!}

Transfer the dough, for the final rising time, on a lightly floured tray (semola flour is best). If you wish now you can engrave, with a very sharp blade, the top of your bread.

Preheat the oven at 240°C in static mode, as it will be ready to use once the second resting time is over. This can take up to an hour because you won’t need the dough to double up in size but it will need just to be a pluffy and no longer dense dough.

At this point, your rustic sourdough is ready to be placed in the oven. I like to cook my bread by creating some moisture in the oven, so 5 minutes before baking, I’d place a tray with some water at the bottom of the oven. The moisture will help the bread to cook better and get this perfect artisan-style bread result.

Place the tray at the centre rack into the oven and start to bake at 240°C for 20 minutes. After this time, remove the tray with the water, lower the temperature to 210°C and continue to bake for another 40 minutes, doing the last 10 minutes with the open crack oven. This will allow the moisture to escape and will give your sourdough a crunchy and coloured crust.

Cooling and enjoy it!

The whole hour in the oven will leave your Rustic sourdough, cook through perfectly and your house will smell amazing.

An important step is to cool the bread loaf on a wire rack, for more or less an hour (if you can resist the perfume).

Finally, your sourdough is ready.

This is a very simple recipe, the only thing that is very required is your patience and of course the love you will put to follow this recipe step by step. My advice is not to try shortcuts as they don’t always work. To be honest with you I have been doing this recipe for many years now, and it can happen to fail if you rush the process, but if you don’t, the result will be great.

Leave a comment if you try this recipe and let me know how your bread was, if you have any other questions about this recipe don’t hesitate to contact me. I will be very pleased to help you through.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Italian Sourdough starter

Rustic Sourdough bread recipe – easy to make with lievito madre Read More »

How to start the best Italian Sourdough – Lievito madre stater recipe

1 Comment / 10 December 2021

It is yes a long process, sometimes you will feel like giving up but, the results you will achieve from your hard job it will be your big pride and happiness when starting another baking recipe.

The Italian Sourdough and the normal Sourdough are a bit different one to another; by eye, you can see Italian Sourdough is more solid than the other Sourdough, as this last one will have higher hydration (more water). By the nose, the normal Sourdough has fewer acid notes, so a sweeter end than the Italian Sourdough. The effort to start the both of them are quite the same (not when it comes to refreshing it) but my experiences with either, makes me choose the Italian Sourdough as the best for me.

What do you need?

To set up your starter, you are going to need: a glass jar with a lid, a scale, mixing bowl, unbleached flour, chlorine-free water (bottled or filtered) and unrefined sugar or honey to help the yeast activate. An airtight glass jar is the best option to keep safe your Italian Sourdough, better with a wide top so you can stick your hand in. See what I use.

Which flour you can use?

This is a nice question with many different answers, but I will only say that it is up to you, as you can do the starter with most of the flour, depending on the final result you would like to have.

In my past Italian Sourdough recipes, I used to use all-purpose flour, plain flour (farina 00 or 0) and wholemeal flour, all of them for different starters, of course. After many trials I decided to use a less refined flour (strong wholemeal flour) to achieve a healthier and tastier recipe; with the help of a refined one use it only to strengthen the wholemeal flour at the beginning (Canadian or Manitoba flour).

Italiansourdoughstarter4 — https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/strong-wholemeal-bread-flour-doves-15kg https://www.bakerybits.co.uk/whm-very-strong-100-canadian-white-bread-flour?yoReviewsPage=2

italiansourdoughstarter5 — https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/strong-wholemeal-bread-flour-doves-15kg https://www.bakerybits.co.uk/whm-very-strong-100-canadian-white-bread-flour?yoReviewsPage=2

Why I started an Italian Sourdough at first?

If there is a reason why I often fail diet it is because of bread (and other bakery products). The love I have for the bread it is something really strong that I can help staying away from it for longer then 2 days. I love it for breakfast with some peanut batter and jam or with avocado, during lunch with my salad and for dinner to eat my lentils. – I don’t eat it with all my meal, I swear. –

I’m not sure when this love started, I believed when I was very young. As I remember my grandmothers making the bread dough and, from the village she was taking it to the little farm 15 minutes drive, only to cook it in the wood oven for the best result. And the smell, if I close my eyes it just fells like I’m there waiting the bread to be ready so I can eat some.

So after many years of watching and studying my mother doing this Sourdough for years I decided, once left Italy, to start my little Sourdough. I have done some of them, not only because I forgot to feed them or to experiment others flour, but as well because since 2014 I lived in different country and it was difficult to take it with me (which is sad). After diffrents try I can say this is the recipes with the flour I like the most and so I am ready to share with you. Make sure you have everything you need to start the Italian Sourdough starter with this post.

The flours I decided to use for this Sourdough are the “strong wholemeal flour” from Doves Farm and the “100% canadian flour (Manitoba)” from Marriage’s the Master Millers.

day 1

In a mixing bowl melt a teaspoon of unrefined sugar (I used dark brown sugar) in 50 grams of filtered water (if you use tap water make to boil it and cool before using, that helps release the chlorine), slowly add 70 grams of the Strong Wholemeal flour and 30 grams of Manitoba flour and mix it until become a non stick dough ball. Cross the dough and put it in a clean and dry glass jar, pleace the lid but don’t seal it.

Store the jar in a dry and warm area of the house, should be kept at room temperature, best is beetwen 20°-27°c. -This is for all the starting process, after few weeks can be store in the fridge and will need less refreshing, don’t worry.- You can leave it now for 48 hours before the next step.

day 3

After the 2 days resting the dough will be soggy and airy with some bubbles, this means the yeast are starting to eat the sugar. Remove the upper dough, trow it away and weight only 100 grams of the fresher bottom dough. Add to the 100 grams of dough, half the amount in water, so 50 grams and the same amount of the dough in flours, so 70 grams of strong Wholemeal and 30 grams Manitoba flour.

The best way to mix everything is by first melt the dough into the water and then slowly add the flour in making a soft and smooth dough to be kept again in the clean, washed only with warm water and dry glass jar (do not seal the lid on).

day 5

The 48h rest has let your, Italian Sourdough starter, increase in volume and feed the little amount of active yeast. The process will be the same as day 3, so taking out the dries top dough, feed the 100 grams, with 50 grams filtered, bottled or boiled water, 70 grams Wholemeal flour and 30 grams Canadian flour. After combining well the ingredients you can store the dough, by crossing it, in the clean and dry jar, from now on by sealing the lid.

day 6

From this day if you see your dough is full in volume and ready to develop more you can avoid to use the Manitoba, (as we only use it to help the Wholemeal flour to get stronger and to speed up the rising process) in case your dough still seems weak keep going with the 70/30 grams. In case you decide not to use anymore the Manitoba flour your follow “feeding” method will be the same as the rest ;but the flour you will add, are 100 grams (same weight of the dough) of the strong Wholemeal flour and 50 grams of water. The dough is then store in a clean and dry glass jar at room temperature.

the following week

After 24 hours you can refresh you Italian Sourdough starter until is ready, this whole process can take one extra week, where once a day, you will need to feed it. Take out the top part and trow it away, weight 100 grams, add 50 grams of filtered water and 100 grams of strong wholemeal flour, make a smooth dough and store it in the jar at room temperature. After this week you will see you dough got stronger and the “bubbles” formed are bigger and more then days before. The smell can be quite strong, but be carefull if is very acid smell, there something wrong. Don’t worry if you follow all these steps this won’t happen.

day 14

On this day your Italian Sourdough will be more then ready to be used and to be stored in the fridge. Before move the jar in the fridge make sure you feed it once more, the same way as always. Once in the fridge this can be feed once to twice a week, depending on your baking plans.

Why is better then fresh and dry yeast?

This Italian Sourdough recipe together with the normal Sourdough are two better alternative then the ready to use yeast; if you are looking for quality, intense flavor, best aroma, a longer shelf life and a product easy to digest, this recipe is for you.

What to do when is ready?

Once the starter is ready to use, of course you should start baking and feel in love with it. Now the sourdough can be stored in the fridge and it will need to be feed once to twice a week (best is every 5 days), if your plan is to bake once a week; if the plan is to bake more often, then you can keep it outside but you need to feed it every day with the same process and quantity as usual.

Important to remember: when you take the sourdough from the fridge wait couple of hours, or till it reach a room temperature, and then feed it by eliminate the top layer and weight out as much as you want to keep of dough, add half weight of water and same amount for the flour. So 100gr dough, 50gr filtered water and 100g flour. When the dough is smooth and back in the clean and dry glass jar, seal the lid and wait an hour then place it back in the fridge.

How to bake with the Sourdough?

Once you find the baking recipe you are ready to go. Make sure you refresh, as always, your italian sourdough starter once to twice during the day (depending on the recipe and how long you kept it in the refrigerator). Store in the fridge, as usual, what is not needed it for the recipe; and wait a couple of hour more to activate the amount you kept at room temperature for the recipe.

Lievito madre starter — streightner folding process.

Little tips:

-If you have already an active sourdough starter you can use it to convert some into the Italian Sourdough starter only in few days.

-You can make the italian sourdough stronger by doing more refreshing every 12 hours

-The Italian Sourdough is not only for bread, pizza or focaccia; it can be used for sweet bakery recipe such as brioches, cinnamon rolls and the traditional Italian Panettone.

If you starting your sourdough today and you need some extra tips do not hesitate to ask me in the comment or send me an email. I believe you will love the results after your effort and you will think, “Oh yes, that was a well spent time”, biting yet another piece of bread.

Enjoy it!

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