In my childhood there were two kinds of bread. White bread and dark bread. For shabbat there was chala, a round sweet chala and regular chala. When my parents wanted to treat us we got rolls. Not that there was a bigger variety, again there were two kinds, a long roll and a round one. As I have already confessed, I was a terrible eater as a child. I used to come back from school, immediately peeking at the pots standing on the stove. If I “couldn't find anything to eat”, for instance, if there was an onion in the dish, I’d go directly to the bread box. I’d cut a loaf of bread, always from the edge, fill it up with cheese, slice tomatoes, cucumbers and some olives, then add olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice and then eat it with great delight. Mom would look at me frustrated, “this isn’t lunch” she would grumble, as I enjoyed each bite.
Ingredients
3 ½ cups flour
1 TBS dry yeast
1 TBS sugar
1 tsp salt
3 garlic cloves minced
2 TBS olive oil
1 ¼ cups warm water
¼ cup olive oil
3 tsp rosemary finely chopped
3 garlic cloves minced
1 cup pecorino cheese grated
Place yeast, sugar and ¼ cup warm water in a small bowl. Let stand until small bubbles appear (about 4-5 minutes).
Place flour in a mixer bowl with kneading hook, add yeast mix and stir. Add salt, garlic and olive oil and mix. Add water slowly until elastic dough is formed. Knead for 7 minutes. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for two hours until dough is doubled.
Heat oven to 350 F. in a small bowl mix olive oil rosemary and garlic. Punch dough to take out the air, and roll to a 18X15 inch rectangle ¼ inch thick. Spread the garlic/rosemary olive oil over the dough and sprinkle with the pecorino cheese. Cut dough into six strips (widthwise) with a tritan pizza cutter (or knife if you don’t have one), it’s ok if they’re not even. Place strips on top of each other and cut into six squares. Oil 9x5 bread loaf pan with the remains of the rosemary/garlic olive oil. Stack the squares against each other, cut-sides down. Spread some olive oil on top of the dough, cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 30 minutes until golden.
