Here’s a lovely loaf that’s attractive, soft, wholesome and full of flavour. Although it’s a savoury bake, there’s still a nice little hint of sweetness.

Makes: One large loaf that gives about 15 slices.

Time: 30 – 40 minutes “hands-on” + proving time. 35 minutes baking time.

Level: Reasonably easy

Need: A large baking tray. I use a stand mixer, but you can manage without one, it just means a bit more work kneading.

Ingredients

7g/¼oz sachet of instant yeast
15g/½oz sugar
200ml/7fl oz lukewarm water
250g/9oz durum wheat semolina flour or tipo 00 flour
250g/9oz strong white flour
7g/¼oz fine salt
200g/7oz ricotta (plus a little more in case the mixture is very stiff)
20ml/¾fl oz runny honey
10 – 15 basil leaves, chopped or torn
Up to 75g/2½oz pine nuts

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the lukewarm water. Stir well and set aside.

2. Combine and mix the flours and salt in a large bowl or in a stand mixer bowl. Add in the yeasted water, the ricotta and honey. Mix to form a dough.

3. Knead until it forms a smooth ball. Place in an oiled bowl, cover & leave to rise – about 90 min.

4. Knock back the risen dough. Spread it out fairly flat and scatter over the chopped basil leaves and pine nuts. Fold and roll into a ball then divide it into three equal pieces.

5. With the palms of your hands, roll each piece out to a sausage shaped strand about 50cm/20” long. Line them in a row on your work surface roughly parallel. Pinch the strands together at the “top/far” end then plait the strands and pinch them together at the “bottom/near” end. Tuck the ends under tidily and neaten the shape. Place onto the parchment lined baking tray. Cover or seal inside a large proving bag (i.e. a black bin liner) and leave to rise again – about 60 min.

6. Preheat the oven to 220°C / fan 200°C / 425°F / Gas 7. If you use a baking stone, put it in the oven now to heat up.

7. Sprinkle flour liberally over the plaited dough then slide or place it on the baking stone. Bake it for around 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

NB Take care handling the newly baked loaf, as it could easily break in the middle if unsupported.

I also made a similar loaf with sage, which added a pleasant subtle flavour. But feel free to try any flavour or combination of your choice – sun-dried tomatoes and basil maybe, or garlic with pecorino cheese, or …. Well, I’ll let you decide.

Treccia con Ricotta e pomodori essiccati al sole (Plaited loaf with Ricotta and Sun dried tomatoes)

NB I was so pleased with the original loaves that I later made a similar version using sun-dried tomatoes and rosemary. The ingredients are virtually the same except that I used a little more Ricotta (250ml) and exchanged the pine nuts and basil for 125g sun dried tomatoes and about a tsp of finely chopped fresh rosemary. (You could probably use more if you wanted to strengthen the flavour of rosemary.)

If you try this option, make sure you dry off as much oil as possible from the tomatoes then chop them and also use only the non-woody rosemary leaves, cut finely.

Here are a few pictures of this version.

And here below is an even later version – my Sun-dried Tomato and Olive loaf with Mascarpone.

Ingredients

7g instant yeast
10g caster sugar
125ml lukewarm water (+ 50ml more in reserve)
75ml lukewarm milk
25ml runny honey
250g strong 00 flour
200g strong white flour (+ a little to dust the loaf before baking)
50g semolina (can be omitted – just use more strong white flour)
7g fine salt
1 or 2 tsp dried basil (or you could use fresh)
250g Mascarpone, at room temperature
100g sun-dried tomatoes (chopped quite small and dried of oil as far as possible)
50g olives with stones removed, and sliced

The method is very similar to above. You may need to use most of the 50ml reserved water.

I wish you every success with your bread making. I hope you have a go at this one and enjoy making and eating a lovely loaf. If you want to see more of my bread recipes click this link.

Here are some quite different breads that you might want to try:

Garlic Boxty Bread