If bread is the staff of life, then some bread is la dolce vita-the sweet life. Around the time of the vendemmia in Tuscany, I like making schiacciata con l’uva, a Florentine dessert made with bread dough, red wine, olive oil, rosemary and grapes. Made only during grape harvest season, the dessert derives it character from these autumn grapes. Pluck your rosemary from outside the kitchen door, add lashings of olive oil and handfuls of sugar along with a pinch of anice and a small glass of Chianti Classico, and combine it all with bread dough for a delicious sweet.
Take 350g of flour (grano tenero, ‘00′), sift and set aside in a deep bowl with a pinch of salt. Dissolve 10g of fresh yeast (lievito di birra) and 10g of sugar in about 200g of warm water and leave to ferment 10-15 minutes or until the mixture froths. Add this to the flour and mix to a smooth elastic dough, kneading 5-10 minutes and adding a couple of spoons of olive oil to make the dough even softer, shinier and more elastic. Leave to rest in a covered bowl in a warm place until it doubles in size (about 1 hour).
Wash and dry 700g of the nicely sweet but tart sangiovese grapes, removing stalks, leaves and debris.
Take 100g of sugar and dissolve over heat with a small glass of Chianti Classico. Bring to boil, simmer 5 minutes, then add a small handful of finely chopped rosemary and a pinch of anise powder. Allow to cool to room temperature.
When dough has doubled in size throw in a floured fist to beat it back down, kneading to remove the CO2. Divide dough into three equal parts: use two-thirds for the base and one-third for the top.
Oil (always extra-virgin olive oil!) a round cake tin and stretch base dough as you would for pizza, but thicker. Use extra olive oil to help, and allow extra dough around the sides for when the dough shrinks back. Take two-thirds of the grapes and fill the dough, add two-thirds of the syrup and a bit of olive oil. Cover with the remainder of the dough, stretching into place and curling the rim of the base up onto the rim of the top dough. Sprinkle with the rest of the grapes and push them into the dough. Add the remainder of the syrup, another splash of olive oil and a handful of sugar over the top.
Leave to rise until the dough again doubles in size, then put into a hot oven, around 200°C, for 40-50 minutes. The grapes will seep their lovely red wine colour and flavour throughout the white bread dough.
Leave to cool to room temperature to be ready to eat. I always like to echo the dish with a small glass of Chianti Classico and have my espresso after.
Buon appetito!
A benefit of buying una striscia di schiacciata con l’uva from a bakery is sinking your teeth into the soft syrupy dough and getting the crunch of the seeds from Chianti wine grapes, which are generally smaller and tarter than the table variety. My favourite forno for schiacciata con l’uva is Forno Top on via della Spada, 23r, where Maurizio is a star baker.
