Recipe Courtesy of Williams-Sonoma. Adapted from Chuck Williams Collection, “Simple Italian Cooking”, by Chuck Williams (Time-Life Books, 1992).
If you have found breadmaking intimidating or too much work, try baking this simple loaf. The richly textured bread is especially delicious warm or toasted, for breakfast or with soups, salads, meats or seafood.
Tip
Purchase a fast-acting dry yeast sold in most food stores. It’s much stronger and quicker than conventional active dry yeast; under ideal conditions, rising time can be shortened to less than 1 hour.
When you are ready to put the dough in a bowl to rise, warm the bowl first with warm to moderately hot tap water. Then dry the bowl, brush lightly with oil, add the dough and cover. The dough starts rising much faster because of the warmth of the bowl, decreasing total rising time. If you have one, an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook can be used to knead the dough.