We dedicate an almost full day, approximately every two months, to make our wonderful pecorino - walnut - cheese bread. It is something we have done for years and it is a big job. Nevertheless, it never seems like too much work...and it never seems the same...perhaps because it truly never is the same.
Except for the proportions of flour to water and to yeast, we never measure or weigh any of the other ingredients...and each time we like to enact a variation on theme, varying the ingredients from different types of pecorino and other cheeses, using a mixture (different each time) of montasio, Swiss Emmenthal, auricchio, taleggio, always well-aged. The only absolute is a 36-month aged parmigiano, grated at the moment.
We used our very last own walnuts from the trees at Genius Loci http://www.geniuslociumbria.com today. Until our harvest next fall we will have to buy them.
What is it that is so reassuring in the ritual of breakmaking - of firing up the outdoor igloo-shaped oven? It must play to our ancestral genetic memory of the basics: fire and ashes.
Comments (1)
I didn't realize you had walnut trees at Genius Loci, Mary -- I'll have to see if I can find them!
That bread looks absolutely mouthwatering. No wonder Virgola and Maurizio look so content!
Posted by sandrac | April 24, 2010 4:36 AM
Posted on April 24, 2010 04:36