There are a lot of great combinations in life, and books and food is definitely one of them for me. Think of being curled up in your favourite chair with a good book, something to munch on and a cup of tea, then that’s one idea of what my heaven could look like. Throw in some rain (with the rain outside and me inside) and that scene is almost perfect.
When I first joined this group of bloggers who continue to be inspired on a gastronomic level by the books they read, I was living in Cochin with a wonderful library which was almost in my backyard. I might miss my weekly shopping, but you could be sure I would be at the library every week no matter what. In fact, if they didn’t see us at the library, they would enquire after us!
This library is one of the things I really miss about leaving Cochin. Two places I visit without fail during our trips back home at this library and my baking supplies store!!
Unfortunately, reading is something that doesn’t happen much these days because, as I keep mentioning, good libraries aren’t what Goa is about but that’s another story. The long and short of it is that I haven’t been joining my fellow bloggers in their monthly book inspired cooking for sometime now, mostly because I haven’t been able to find the books.
This month’s choice was Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes and, you guessed it, I couldn’t find that title either. However, I have seen the movie which stars Diane Lane in the leading role. I know the movie is a lot different from the book, yet the basic story line of both book and movie are much the same.
Based on the life of the author, it is about a middle aged American woman who is recently divorced and decides to deal with her depression with a trip to Tuscany in Italy. Once there she comes upon Bramasole, an empty house, up for sale in the village. She makes an impulsive decision to buy it and there starts her story with fixing up the house starting with the plumbing right through to everything else.
The book (and the movie) deals with her discovery of herself through another culture, its food, its people and their way of life.
Frances Mayes** also provides some recipe of typically Tuscan food in her book. Since I didn’t read the book or see the recipes, I decided to let myself be inspired by the region and make something typically Tuscan.
I chose to bake Schiacciata Con L’Uva. Quite a mouthful, but what that is, is a sweet focaccia (flatbread) stuffed and topped with grapes. Schiacciata, by the way, means flattened or squashed.
In autumn, “la vendemmia (the harvesting season of wine grapes) in Tuscany is celebrated with the preparation of this bread. I’m guessing that this also happens to be a way to use up some of those grapes that don’t make it to the crushing process.
This was something I had bookmarked quite a while ago, but didn’t make because there were no grapes to be had anywhere. While I don’t get the variety which is used for this bread, it is the season now for beautiful, juicy and sweet black seedless grapes. And so the perfect season to be inspired to bake something Tuscan.
This anise flavoured schiacciata is sweetened with sugar and redolent with the aroma of olive oil and rosemary. Shaheen (a.k.a The Purple Foodie) has sent me some fresh rosemary, oregano and sweet marjoram some time back. As I couldn’t use up all the herbs, Shaheen advised that I freeze them. And so I had fresh (well, frozen) rosemary to put in this flatbread.
I halved and slightly adapted this recipe from the Tuscan Recipes site. I had to make some adjustments for the amount of flour, as I needed more than specified in the original recipe. A detailed step-by-step tutorial on making this bread can be found here
Bread and Grapes Under A Tuscan Sun: Schiacciata Con L'Uva
Ingredients
For the base:
- 2 1/2 to 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsps yeast dry active
- pinch salt
- 2 tbsps sugar granulated
- 1/2 tsp anise seeds
- 1 to 1 1/2 cups water warm
- 1/2 cup milk
For the topping:
- 1/2 kg grapes black , juicy (I used less; mine were seedless) big
- xbc cup sugar powdered
- a few rosemary twigs of fresh (optional) plus some more
- 3 to 6 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Mix the milk and water and warm it slightly. Dissolve the yeast completely in this milk-water mixture.
- Place the flour, salt and sugar on a clean surface and mix. Form into a small heap with a well in the center. Slowly pour the dissolved yeast into the centre, mixing with the flour until all of the yeast water is incorporated.
- Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes, like for bread, until it is smooth and elastic. Cover the dough and place in a warm place until it has doubled in size.
- In a small saucepan warm the olive oil with some of the rosemary. As soon as the rosemary starts to sizzle, remove saucepan from the heat. Remove the rosemary (throw it away) and let the oil cool.
- Grease a rectangular baking pan. Roll out the dough to about 1 cm thick (this thickness is important or your bread layers will be very thick), and wide enough to have the dough overlapping the edges of the pan by about 2-3 cm all around. Place the dough on the pan and cover it evenly with the grapes, leaving very little space.
- I used a pie plate because I didnu2019t have the right sized rectangular pan.
- Dust the grapes with the sugar and remaining rosemary, then drizzle the olive oil over all of this. Fold the edges of the dough over on top of the grapes around the border, pinching the corners to make the schiacciata rectangular in form.
- Bake the schiacciata at 180C for 30 minutes. You might want to place another pan underneath, because the grapes' juice could drip out over the edges of the pan. Let cool and serve with a bit of honey on top.
Happy Cook says
Love tha tyou used seedless grapes. Our library is too jus so close by but most of their book are in Dutch which i can read magazines etc but not a heavy book, their english section is not that good, but thei cooking books i love and have a huge collection there.eventhough it is dutch that i can handle.
sra says
I know that book – have read it and seen the movie, or maybe I passed up the movie, not too sure.
Madhuri says
Nice and perfect baked bread with grapes.
Natalie... says
Mmm this looks so tasty!! I’m craving some home made bread now!
simply.food says
Very innovative combination bread with grapes.Lovely bread looks delicious.
Rachana Kothari says
Thats a great recipe…loved the idea of using grapes:)
Simran says
Great looking bread! But I am not sure I will be a huge fan either – somehow the sweetness of grapes has kept me from making this so far.
MeetaK says
this looks so delicious, moist and the simplicity is incredible.
The Cooking Ninja says
What a delightful group! I would to love this group as it would encourages me to read something different each time. 🙂
Lien says
Read the book and saw the film… liked the book better. Love these schiaccciata’s, made several with grapes from different books. Love them with sugar over them, so they get a syrupy surface… and you can eat them like pastry, so good!
Anupama says
That is a good-looking pizza. I know how you feel about not having a well stocked library close by. I am fortunate to have a great library in my city and it stocks the most fabulous collection of cooksbooks from all over the globe
Tasty Eats At Home says
This looks so gorgeous and different. Love it.
Manggy says
I keep eyeing that recipe in The Italian Baker with some trepidation; I’ve never bakes with grapes before. You have single-handedly changed my opinion about them – that looks phenomenal.
Soma says
Incredibly beautiful recipe. Bookmarked! I cannot wait to try this out … and I am thinking of a nice summer afternoon with these grapes and rosemary.
aquadaze says
Must be frustrating to not have a good library around. We are really fortunate to have a great library network here, my spending on books has come down a lot!Your base looks very soft, I plan to try it with tomatoes, don’t think I can handle grapes in any bread!
Mallugirl says
i feel for u.. my lifeline is a good library..ur bread looks so luscious!
Natashya KitchenPuppies says
Oh wow, that is beautiful!So sorry books are so hard to find there, I hope you find a good resource soon.
Deeba PAB says
Love how adventurous you are with breads. I need to bake focaccia soon…you are tempting me greatly! I love how this turned out! Thanks for asking. I’m here, running between th ekids, soccer, TOI (yes,I said yes) and other mundane stuff! Have to get to twitter soon!! xo
Sophie says
What a lovely filled bread!! It is so part & so lovely looking!!Very tasty too! Yummmmm,…
Shabs.. says
That looks real good aparna…..i wish somebody could make these kind of foods everyday:).SIgh….
Curry Leaf says
Sp you were in Kakkanad.I too miss my library in Kochi .Mine was/is Eloor in PressClb Road in city itself.It as Perfect for me,and was just 5 minutes walk.I always look forward to go there on my trips to kochi.PS The first thing I did when I knew that I will be staying in Blore,is get an address of there Blore branch which is well a bit far from where I am staying,but yeah,I am a member there also.Blore branch is more advanced than the other one Where was the baking store in Kochi? I am searching for such things now only.I go to one called ‘Bakes’ in a small lane near MG Road.Love the focaccia.I too had made the same from ‘a year in bread’.I used dried rosemary only thgh.
nina says
Looks wonderful Aparna.
Bong Mom says
Ok, I can’t pronounce it 😉 but looks really good. Have heard of the book, will read once I am done with my current one
FoodyGuru (Srimathi) says
Very nicely baked Bread with grapes. You always come up good stuff. Sorry for the late comment at your blog. How are you doing Aparna? Its been a long time since I wrote on your blog.
Mimi says
What a beautiful bread!!
Joanne says
I definitely don’t use grapes enough in my baking but uva foccaccia is a definite Italian classic. yours looks just marvelous. Perfect for an Under The Tuscan Sun themed dish.
Pedhakka says
Lovely blog !!!