Pagnotta di Patate da Fabio

Thursday, February 21. 2008

I adapted and simplified this recipe out of some miscellaneous Italian cookbook my mother-in-law had (but discarded, so I don't know the name). Not having had potato bread while I was in Milan, I don't know if it's authentic Venetian style, but it's certainly good and the single most popular recipe I ever posted to cooksillustrated.com. The recipe is fairly fast for yeasted bread, and so easy that it got several people on CI.com started on baking bread and may be even more popular than the no-knead bread there. Since CI.com search is still broken, I'm posting it here so people can find it.

Pagnotta di Patate da Fabio

(Venetian Potato Bread, adapted by the Fuzzy)

This is a wonderful potato bread recipe that is perfect with a good Italian dinner. Serve it while dinner's cooking with good olive oil and balsalmic vinegar, and you won't have enough room left for dinner!

1 lbs Potatoes (2 med. russet)
3 tsp. Active Dry Yeast
2 lbs all-purpose flour (7 cups?)
1 tbs sea salt + pinch.
1 tbs olive oil.
2 1/2 cups water
Spritzer full of clean water.

Warm 1/2 cup water, and mix with yeast and 1/2 cup of the flour. Leave to bubble while you do the potatoes.

Peel, de-oculate, and slice the potatoes. Boil for 10-15 min, until soft. Remove from water, allow to cool (10 min) and mash in a large mixing bowl.

Using hands, mix the flour with the mashed potatoes and the salt. When well mixed, add the yeast mixture and 1 1/2 cups of the potato water. Mix until everything is well combined and sticks together.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured board. Knead 12-15 times, but not too much. Coat a clean bowl with the olive oil and put in a warm place to rise for 1 hour (45 min at 90 degrees). Punch down, and divide in half, shaping into two oval loaves. Place on parchment on cookie sheet and rise again for the same period (45 min - 1 hour).

20-25 min before the 2nd rising is complete, place a baking stone in the oven and pre-heat to 400 degrees. Make sure oven has been at 400 degrees for at least 10 minutes before you put the bread in.

At the right time, slash both loaves, and slide the cookie sheet on top of the baking stone. At 15 min and again at 20 min, spritz the loaves with water. At 25 min, you should be able to lift the loaves off the cookie sheet and onto the baking stone. Spritz them, and spritz them again at 30 minutes. They should be done by 40-45 minutes; you can tell by an oak-brown upper crust, and a bottom that sounds hollow when thumped. Place on a rack to cool for at least 20 min.

Posted by The Fuzzy Chef in Recipes at 22:13 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)