Pizza Civitavecchia

Pizza Civitavecchia …Last of the Easter Breads…

Pizza di Pasqua….Pizza Civitavecchia…Pizza di Pasqua…

Lovely….

Tasty!!

Mmmmmm

Too hard!! I can’t choose…

Both are too lovely…

I need to be very greedy and have both…with Pandoro and all my other bready lovelies…

Now this gorgeousness is deceptive.

By the 2nd day, it looked a little dry but it wasn’t, when I ate it, it was lovely, spongey and moist and the aniseed aroma….Divine:)

I am now on day 5 and it is still ok to eat with out toasting but I have been toasting it and having it with greek yoghurt!!

Simply sublime….

Hints of rum, aniseed and the moist ricotta:)

So let us get yeasty beasty as this is the last of the summer breads…err Easter breads!!

Start with the sponge…

Ground the aniseed…

Almost batter like..

rising….

Rising….

What will you need?

A bloody lot of eggs!!:)

For the sponge:

4 tsp of dried yeast

1/2 cup of warm water

3/4 cup of flour.

For the Dough:

3.5 cups of Flour

1/2 cup of castor sugar

Pinch of salt

4 eggs

9 egg yolks!!! (yep- meringues coming up later or almond cookies)

200g ricotta

1/2 cup of rum

3 tbsp of aniseed powder

Grated Zest of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

250g of butter

rising…

Place dried yeast in the warm water and stir until combined.

Allow to stand and become frothy, usually about 10 minutes.

Add flour and mix in well.

Cover tightly with Gladwrap and allow to stand for an hour and become soupy.

almost ready….

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and combine well.

Add the egg yolks and eggs into the yeasty mix, combine well.

Add the ricotta and rum  into the eggy yeast mix, combine until smooth.

Grate zest directly into the dry ingredients to get the oils of the lemon into the mix as well.

Mix well and pour the eggy mix into the dry, forming a dough.

Knead for 6 minutes until golden and springy.

Add in the butter, 30-40g at a time until well combined into the dough.

The dough will be very soft, almost batter like.

Place in a well oiled bowl and rest, well covered for 2 hours.

Place / pour dough when risen into 1 or 2 well greased moulds.

Cover and allow to rise for a further 60-90  minutes until doubled in size.

30 minutes before finishing, pre heat the oven to 200 celsius.

You can brush the top with egg white and sprinkle with sugar pellets if you wish.

Place bread into the oven and bake for 15 minutes, reduce the temperature and bake a further 40 minutes at 175 celsius.

Cover tops of the bread if need be, if they get too brown.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Place on a wire rack after 15 minutes to cool fully.

Slice and ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY!!

This bread is gorgeously moist but not so delicate as the Pizza di Pasqua.

As Carol Field says ” it has an unusual taste”…

Which it does but its gorgeous, not overly sweet, you could almost have it with cheese but that hint of sweetness is there.

A Fig jam would be divine on it, after toasting…I can verify it is heavenly with greek yoghurt:)

Sit down, have a coffee and Enjoy!!

Adapted from the ever Fabulous Carol Fields “The Italian Baker” 2nd Edition, 2011.

http://greedybread.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/pizza-civitavecchia-last-of-the-easter-breads/