After the harvest, Schiacciata con l'uva or Grape Foccacia

So now that our grapes have been harvested, you might wonder what to do with all of those grapes when they seen to be coming out of your ears.

Naturally, everyone mostly everyone makes wine, but the wine grapes are so wonderfully sweet and delicious, that if you can stop yourself from devouring them by the bunch, you might want to toss some on your favorite focaccia or flat bread  recipe. Squish them into the dough, sprinkle some coarse sugar on top, and drizzle some light flavored olive oil and/or melted butter over it all. Bake till fragrant, gooey, purpley, and golden, and  enjoy as a sweet treat a the end of your meal or for breakfast like we do at our house this time of the year.

In our part of the world this is called Schiacciata con l'uva, or grape foccacia. It is usually made during the grape harvest and is a specialty of the Tuscany region. We, northerners, do enjoy this seasonal treat as well and can be found gracing the bread shops daily offerings on occasion. Schaiacciata derives from the verb schiacciare, which means to crush, smash, squash or trounce. I think you get the picture. It should come as no surprise then that this flat bread has squashed grapes stuck all over it before letting it rise up around the grapes before popping it into the oven for a chewy, grapey, luscious delight.  

 

Italians don't mind seeds in their olives or grapes, as they contend that is gives you more flavor than when the seed are removed before baking. I tend to fluctuate on this tradition depending on my mood. Fabrizio has convinced me that a few little seeds just add a bit of roughage to ones diet and quite frankly the sweetest grapes are oftentimes quite small and so I find I mind them all that much. I suspect it's just what you get use to. I will usually cut the grapes in half and scrape out the seeds before plunging them into my fluffy dough.
Traditionally, this is made as a single layer bread in a round or rectangular pan. I discovered that if you make two layers it turns into a gooey concoction bordering on the divine. Adjust the amounts of sugar and oil to achieve your preferred result, dry or gooey. 

Schiacciata con l'uva or Grape Foccacia

Ingredients

• 1 package instant dry yeast (2 1/2 tsp)
• pinch fine sea salt
  
• 1 Tb sugar or honey
  
• 3/4 c (160g) warm water (110–115°F)
•  fresh rosemary, 2 or 3 inch piece
  
•  3 c (300g) all-purpose or Italian "00" flour
• 1/4 cup  olive oil, light flavored or melted butter if you prefer
• 1/2 c (95g) sugar, white or brown, coarse or granulated (you could drizzle honey instead of the sugar on top for an Etruscan touch)
• 1 1/2 pounds (1/2 kilo) Concord or sweet wine grapes (3 1/2 c)

Method

The dough:
Gently warm the oil with the rosemary branch and set aside to cool.
Stir together the tablespoon of sugar or honey and warm water in a large bowl.
Stir in the flour, sea salt, and 1 tablespoon of aromatic oil. 
Knead dough on a floured work surface, adding a bit more flour if necessary to keep dough from sticking, until dough is smooth and elastic but still soft, 8 to 10 minutes.
Try to not get the dough too firm.
Transfer dough to an oiled large bowl and turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap.
Let rise in a warm place and allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 40 minutes to an hour.

Turn dough onto floured work surface.
Cut dough in half.
Lightly roll out 1 piece of dough,  retaining much of your air in the dough.
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled rectangular or 10" round pan. Stretch to fit if needed.

Scatter half of the grapes** over dough.
Sprinkle part of the sugar and drizzle part of the oil over as well.
Roll out remaining piece of dough in same manner and place on top of grapes, gently stretching dough to cover grapes.
Scatter remaining grapes on top. Gently press into dough.
Top with remaining sugar and drizzle with the  aromatic oil.
Cover pan with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until light and almost doubled, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Bake schiacciata in middle of oven until well browned, juicy and firm in middle, about  40 to 45 minutes depending on your oven.
Loosen sides and bottom of schiacciata with a spatula and slide onto a rack to cool.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cooks' note:  I have used local varieties like Barbarosso and Barbera, although Uva Frogola is a traditional choice.   Concord grapes are a good variety to use.
* *I bow to most people's preference to remove as many of the seeds as possible by cutting in half and scrapping many of the seeds out.  Your  grapes will be very juicey and I make sure to retain all of that juice as possible by performing this process directly over each layer of dough.
Traditionally the grapes are added whole and squashed into the dough to release their juices.

Gofri, the recipe

Here's one of our favorite local festival snacks that turns up in more places now and again, Gofri(go free). It's a thin crispy waffle filled with any number of savory and sweet fillings.

Gofri with Nutella sandwiched in between,
served up at our favorite watering hole,
Beba microbrewery in our neighboring town of Villar Perosa.

I wrote about them and some of the other award winning local specialties here.

My original introduction to Gofri, was a light flavorful waffle slathered with local favorite, Nutella (as the original guilty pleasure hails from nearby Alba). Pure bliss. It didn't take me long to be won over by prosciutto crudo and aged creamy tomini cheese, or porcini mushrooms and marinated artichokes, or with marmalade and, and, and,.....mmmmm. I think I'm just going to have to go and fix myself something to eat before I fall off my chair fantasizing about the possibilities.

Here we have the outdoor variety set up for flea market the other day

The secret of the crispy outside is the lard that they lube up the hot griddle with.

If you haven't worked it out yet. Gofri making is a male dominated cooking endeavor.

Not unlike bar-b-que, which is also one of the favorite male bonding sports as well here in Italy.
I think it speaks to something very deeply ingrained back in the day of the discovery of fire and dinosaur burgers, but I digress.

Once they are determined crispy, it's on to the choice of fillings and ultimately eating.
I am passing along the recipe of our friends Alma and Renato's from Mentoulles, a small hamlet next to Fenestrelle Fortress.

During the winter Olympics of 2006 they invited us up to share a big feast of gofri with all the fixins and some of their very own moscato wine from their cantina. Notice the big stack of gofri, front and center, that we managed to polish off without too much of an effort. Renato is there manning their indoor set up in their cantina. It was a memorable night indeed. Now you can make your own little gofri festival and create some memories of your own.

Gofri

• 1 liter of water, tepid
  
• 750 g of farina, 00
• 1 cube of fresh yeast
• pinch of salt

Mix the fresh yeast and salt with the tepid water.
Whisk the flour into the water, salt and yeast mixture.
Leave in a warm place for 3 hours to allow the batter to develop.
Heat your griddle till very hot.
Run a piece of fatback over the griddle or brush with lard.
Brush with a light coating of olive oil or sunflower oil.
Close to reheat briefly.
Pour your batter over the whole surface to cover and close.
Cook on one side and flip over
Cook until light brown and crispy.
Give it a poke with a fork if uncertain that it is cooked all the way through.
Place on a plate, cover one half with your preferred topping and fold in half.
Serve immediately.
Lick your fingers clean.

Toppings/fillings suggestions

Prosciutto crudo and soft cheese, gorgonzola
Cooked ham with mozzarella
marinated artichokes, tomatoes and stacchino cheese
spicy salami thinly sliced

Nutella
Apricot or any of your favorite preserves. I love plum with rosemary
Anything goes really.

Five Grain Bread with Walnuts, A Bread Baking Buddy Event

I am a passionate baker and bread is one of my all time favorites. I make all of our bread for us and our guests. I on occasion will buy bread in town to try someone else's for a change of pace, but find that for the most part, good bread is a dying art, even here in Italy. There are loads of bakeries and just too many white loaves and many different shapes, but most of them all taste the same. Seldom do they jump out at me and catch my imagination. Integrale or whole wheat loaves are generally the same. If you find a good dark bread here, it is usually a good one and often it will have walnuts as well. Dark walnut bread is a favorite in these parts, traditional and not so easy to find. When I saw this loaf popping up around on a few blogs last week ad heard it was the Baking Bread Babes 1 year anniversary, hosted by the energetic and ever so friendly and encouraging creator, Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups, I knew I was in. I have been making similar loaves to appreciative eaters, so I knew this one would be a winner as well and it was.
I am unable to completely follow a recipe for either lack of concentration or because I don't have the exact ingredients on hand and often only go into town once a week or so, and if it gets forgotten then so be it, tweaked recipe. Actually, I did pretty well on this one, having all the ingredients on hand, but I just had to tinker with the method a bit to suit my baking frame of mind these days. I'm a fan of slow rise, natural leavening, full flavor bread as I am a firm believer in that the longer it rises slowly, the sugars break down and release their full flavor goodness. Feel free to follow the recipe as is, because I know you will get good results as the many different bakers did. Check out the list of other Baking Babes and their results on Tanna's blog.
I love this bread as it it is very flavorful and has a nice crispy and yet chewy crust. Great toasted for breakfast as well as with fresh ricotta and olive pate just to name one variation.
I will add my modifications and method at the end of the recipe.

Five~Grain Bread with Walnuts
Adapted from Carol Field's An Italian Baker

Pane ai Cinque Cereali con Noci

Makes 2 9 X 5-inch loaves
1 1/4cups (300 grams) walnut pieces
3 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast or 1 1/2 small cakes (27 grams) fresh
yeast
¼ cup warm water
3 cups water, room temperature
3 3/4 cups (500 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups (125 grams) oat flour or finely ground rolled oats
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (125 grams) rye flour
1 cup less 1 tablespoon (125 grams) whole-wheat flour
¾ cup (125 grams) brown rice flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (20 grams) salt

Toast the walnuts for 10 minutes in a 400 F oven; then chop in a food processor fitted with the steel blade or with a sharp knife to the size of a fat rice kernel. Do not grind them finely.

BY HAND

Stir the yeast into the warm water in a large mixing bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in 3 cups water. Mix the walnuts, flours, and salt and stir 2 cups at a time into the dissolved yeast, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. The dough should come together easily. Knead on a floured surface, sprinkling with additional all-purpose flour as needed, until firm, elastic, and no longer sticky, 8 to 10 minutes.

BY MIXER

Stir the yeast into the warm water in a mixer bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in 3 cups water. Stir in the flours, walnuts, and salt with the paddle. Mix until the dough comes together. Change to the dough hook and knead for 3 to 4 minutes at medium speed until firm and elastic but still slightly sticky. Finish kneading briefly by hand on a surface floured with all-purpose flour.

BY PROCESSOR

Make sure your food processor can handle the volume of this dough. Even when done in 2 batches, there will be 4 cups flour to be processed. Stir the yeast into the warm water in a small bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Place the flours and salt in a food processor fitted with the dough blade and process with several pulses to sift. With the machine running, pour the dissolved yeast and 3 cups cold water through the feed tube as quickly as the flours can absorb it; process until the dough gathers into a ball. Process 40 seconds longer to knead. Knead in the walnuts by hand on a surface floured with all-purpose flour.


First Rise. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Shaping and Second Rise. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. The dough should be moist, firm, and noticeably elastic, if slightly sticky. Cut the dough in half and shape each half into an oval loaf to fit a loaf pan. Place the loaves in the oiled pans (preferably glass), cover with a heavy towel, and let rise until truly doubled and fully above the tops of the pans, 1 to 1 ¼ hours.

Baking. Heat oven to 400° F. Slash a pattern in the top of the loaves. One baker in Milan cuts the shape of a stalk of grain on the top; elsewhere bakers make 3 parallel slashes. Bake 40 to 45 minutes; bake the last 5 to 10 minutes out of the pans on a baking stone or baking sheet to brown the bottoms and sides. Cool completely on a rack.

Marla's variations
I made mine all by hand. I prefer weights to cups, but have used cups here.

* Pan toasted the walnuts in the stove in a cast iron skillet, just kept shaking them to turn so they lightly toasted.
* 1/4 tsp instant yeast added to the dry ingredients
* 1 cup ground oat flour and 1/4 cup 6 grain rolled flakes
* Salt about a tablespoon.
* 1 1/2 cup natural leavened starter , sometime called sourdough, I call it biga, here they call the "mama"
* 2 cups or so water, approximately, as I was compensating for the runny starter

I put my dry ingredients together and added the biga and water and mixed with a spoon till I took over with my hands adding more water or flour if needed. I think I went a bit heavy on the water and would back off bit next time. I wanted to make sure the grains could absorb properly.

First rise took a couple of hours as my starter wasn't as lively as usual.

Then I divided the dough in two and gently shaped it into two round loaves. I would have been careful not to deflate it if it hadn't been so wet. them I used two baskets lined with floured cotton tea towels that I keep and use regularly for this purpose, as I can't find heavy canvas nor do I have bannetons. I made sure the loaves were well floured and the tops(which are your bottom of the loaves) covered by the tea towels. I placed both in a large plastic bag and left them in our quite cold room next door to rise over night.

Brought them in next morning and when they had warmed up I baked them in a preheated hot oven on sheet trays that they were turned out on to and deeply slashed. Popped in to a very hot oven that I sprayed with water and baked till hollow sounding.