Pain De Provence

I baked this very large, rustic Italian loaf (pagnotta) a couple weeks ago from Daniel Leader’s wonderful new book, Local Breads, page 197.  He states that it is to bake until almost black or charred for the most authentic loaf.  I didn’t go quite that far but you can see it developed a lot of color which I always prefer in my loaves.

I made Floyd's Italian bread this week-end and it is probably one of the most flavorable breads I've made since I started baking last January. The recipe is simple and makes a lot of dough. I made three smaller loaves instead of two. Shared some with the neighbors last night who had just gotten home from a nine hour road trip and they loved it. We had almost a half a loaf (!) with a shrimp scampi angel hair pasta dish last night - so very good.