I love the Italian attitude to bread. You make it, you eat it, you get on with it. It is an attitude that is straightforward, no-nonsense and born of necessity; none of the fuss and reverence that you find in the artisanal approach of some New York or London bakeries I know. In Italy, it is taken for granted that good food deserves good bread. Most restaurants I have visited in Italy rely on the local baker to provide the bread required for their cichèti, crostini, bruschette and panini. This way they can ensure quality and consistency. That doesn’t mean you have to buy yours too, however. This section contains recipes for all the breads we enjoy making on a daily basis in our small Soho kitchen. If you have the time, you should have a go. There are very few things more satisfying than making your own bread. But if you don’t have time, there is no shame at all in buying good quality bread from a professional baker and using that instead. The one dough that you really must make yourself, however, is pizza dough. It is very simple and opens up a world of possibilities. So it is such a shame that pizza has become the ubiquitous, mass-produced fast food that we see on take-away menus pushed through our letterboxes and stacked high in the freezer cabinets of supermarkets. Some of the flavour combinations are so strange that I often find myself shaking my head slowly as I read the descriptions. In Venice, many of these crimes are perpetrated on a daily basis at the depressing tourist traps where waiters wear striped gondolier shirts and occasionally sing Neapolitan ditties. No wonder the city’s cuisine has such a bad name. But I have had delightful pizza in Italy and in many places outside Italy too. The best ones are always the simplest. Pizza needs a very thin base and sparse topping. Just as with any other dish, the combination of ingredients should be balanced, subtle and complementary. Less is more.
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BREADS
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