Around olive oil #2 - Paola's garlic bread with herbs

La recette en français ...

Paola is my italian friend who already gave me her family recipe from tiramisu, a must-have in every kitchen.

So I was curious when she brought this simple garlic bread for a picnic last year. We celebrated the end of our reading group, and this bread was surrounded by gorgeous and sophisticated dishes. But from the time we tasted it, we loved it !

You can prepare your own bread dough, it's quite easy. But if you're lack of time, you can also buy a prepared pizza dough, it works perfectly !

You can eat this garlic bread fresh for the oven when it's still warm. You can also make it a few hours ahead and bring it for a picnic, wonderful anyway :-)

Paola's garlic bread with herbs

for the bread dough

The recipe is from Jamie Oliver and it works perfectly. The amount of flour is 1 kg, but 750g is enough for 4 pizzas in my kitchen. The bread is also excellent !

- 750g flour (I use a mix of wheat and whole wheat)

- 3/4 Tbsp salt

- 1 sachet of dry yeast (11g, I use SAF brand)

- 3/4 Tbsp caster sugar

- around 500ml lukewarm water

Mix the flours and salt in a bowl big enough for all the dough. Add the yeast and sugar to the water, mix up with a fork and leave for a few minutes. Pour 1/3 of the water into the flour and mix using a fork. Do the same with the rest of the water. When it's too hard to work with the fork, dust your surface with a little flour and knead the dough. Use your left hand to stretch the dough towards you and your right hand to push the dough away from you at the same time. Repeat this until you have a smooth soft dough.

Put the dough in your bowl, cover and let it rest at room temperature about half an hour. 

for the herbs ang garlic bread

Feel free to use fresh herbs ; since only my thyme survived this winter, well, I used dried !

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 4 Tbsp olive oil

- 1 Tbsp dry rosemary

- 1 Tbsp dry oregano

- 1 Tbsp fresh thyme + for dusting

- sea salt and freshly ground pepper

- more olive oil for drizzle

When you're ready to cook the pizza, preheat your oven to 240°C with a pizza stone if you own one. 

Take around 1/4 of the dough, dust your surface and roll the dough out into a circle about 0.5cm thick. Transfer on a baking paper dusted with a little flour. You can prepare all the pizza bases doing the same. Let rest for 15 minutes.

Smash the garlic up to a paste with the olive oil. Roughly smash this herbs in  a pestle and mortar. Smear the garlic oil over the pizza base and sprinkle over the herbs. Season generously with black pepper and a little salt. Cook until gold and crisp, and drizzle with extra olive oil just before serving.

Around olive oil #1 - The seaweed tartare from Sylviane

Read the french recipe ...

Or oyster without oyster !

I received a early Christmas gift last December : a package of 8 different olive oils. Since I'm a big fan of olive oil in my kitchen, I was like a kid ! I was lucky to taste all of these oils last November in Soissons. Even if it was around 10 am, I enjoyed eating pieces of bread dipped with varieties of olive oils ! Olive oil is magical ; it could be bitter and even sour for the stronger varieties if eaten by itself, but it also can sublimate a very simple dish.

So I decided to share my favourite olive oil recipes ; most of them are very simple and often take place on my table.

I always thought that I didn't like seaweed or strong iodized taste. That was before the seaweed tartare from Sylviane ! A very simple spread for appetizer, made in five minutes. Eaten in good company near the Bourget's lake last summer, it was just perfect …

Puro coffee and Paola's tiramisu

 Version française ...

Last sunday was father's day. I was strongly ordered adviced to cook a “simple” meal. If you change a few letters you'll understand : meat, potatoes, and a dessert with a lot of butter and sugar ! Well, all right. And I'll eat something “special” tomorrow mouahahah …

So I baked Jamie style's potatoes (best of the world, no kidding), very classic semi-cooked chocolate cakes, and Paola's tiramisu. Paola is italian and does tiramisu better than no one. Her recipe is incredibly simple and produces a tiramisu whose lifetime is close to minutes. Is to say it's no so bad …

And for a tiramisu, you'll need very strong coffee. I'm the proud owner of a Jura coffee machine which does -almost- everything : grind, clean itself, squeal, ask for water, and incidentally produce a cup of coffee. The quality of this cup largely depends of the coffee beans used (and the water !). I have a friend who brings back tons of coffee from her italian vacations …

Anyway, I recently had the opportunity to taste three blends of Puro fair coffee, including an organic. I have to say that I was both convinced by the coffee and the initiatives around it. The coffee is very very good, mild with no bitterness at the end of the cup. I like having a fair option for this kind of products. You can visit Puro's nice website to discover their contribution for saving the rainforest, watch short videos of producers or even find that you can give a second life to your coffee !

Giveaway. All opinions expressed are my own.