I got a great big bunch of purple basil from the farmer’s market. It was so beautiful and I used some in a delicious salad and I thought with the leftover I’d make a purple pesto. Well I just found out that when you blend purple basil it turns a dark muddy green.

Oh well…

I made a basic pesto with an added roasted red pepper. It taste delicious and you might want to make it with regular green basil instead.

Ingredients for around four servings

2 cups basil leaves – packed

1 roasted red pepper – stem, seeds, skin removed and rough chopped

2 garlic cloves grated

2 oz pine nuts – toasted – I put in a 225 degree F oven till they got some color…10-15 minutes

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup pecorino cheese – shredded

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Optional up to a half cup water – the pesto will come out very thick, It is good that way but I like it thinner. Most people will just add more olive oil but I prefer to use as little oil as possible.

Directions Just Blend!

Latter I made a more traditional style pesto with regular basil leaves.

I didn’t measure but what we have here are a lot of basil leaves, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, pine nuts, parmesan, course sea salt and (don’t tell……..) a little sugar to highlight the sweet basil taste.

 

 

Around this time last year I saw this interesting recipe in Saveur Magazine for Scaccia Bread that is also known as Lasagna Bread. I just had to make it! I do note that I had to make minor adjustments to the recipe. I don’t know if the adjustments were needed because of the brand of semolina I used (all flours are ground slightly different giving different results) or perhaps due to the hard water of Arizona???? Or maybe due to the extreme dry climate that I think is likely or partially the reason. Well anyway it’s an amazing recipe and you can stuff it however you like. I wrote the ingredients as Saveur posted the recipe but I included my adjustments if you need to use them.

The original Scaccia I made with Saveur’s sauce recipe looked like this. (but I baked it ten minutes longer. (70 minutes instead of 60)

I made it few times since. Sometimes I use my own spaghetti sauce. Once I tried it with eggplant but the eggplant. The Eggplant filling did taste good but the thin eggplant sort of melted in.

You can fill it with any combination of things. It can be anything you want.

I like to make  double batch and make two different breads. After you make one Scaccia you will want to do the same I bet!

Here is your basic recipe for the dough.

Ingredients for one loaf

Set oven to 450 degrees F.

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons warm water (this didn’t work out in my home kitchen and I needed to add another 1/4 cup water) you can do recipe as written and add the 1/4 c extra water if needed at the end)

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

2 cups durum wheat semolina flour

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (I added a total of three tablespoons because my dough was too dry before I added the extra water so I always add three tablespoons but you might only need two)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

extra flour for dusting

Saveur also included a sauce recipe for the bread.

1 teaspoon sugar

1 garlic clove – fine chopped

2 cups canned whole tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz caciocavallo  cheese (this is the suggested cheese for the filling)

I did a spinach filling to make it-

I used about 3 lbs spinach

1/4 finely shredded sweet onion

a heaping Tablespoon garlic confit

a couple heaping Tablespoons of vegetable  base

1/2 teaspoon Crushed Calabrian Chili and Oil

fresh ground sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. (I just boiled the spinach in water with the onions briefly….jamming the spinach into the pot and drained it really well for an hour and then added the rest) I used pizza blend cheese but didn’t measure it. I only boil a sort time till the last of the spinach wilts.The spinach comes out amazingly delicious and very flavorful. My husband remarked that this spinach taste like spinach. Usually spinach stuffed things taste like nothing…….

 

Directions

In a large bowl add the warm water, sugar and yeast. Wait till if gets foamy and then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well for about 8 minutes. Cover with wrap and leave it sit out at room temperature for about two hours or until the dough doubles.

Knead the dough and roll it out in about a 26 x 18 inch rectangle. (I’m using some of my photos from original so you can follow along with folding.

Filling in the middle 3rd.

Fold ends in.

Filling on left half.

Fold over right half.

Bring up bottom.

Then you pierce all over.

Wrap in parchment and place on baking sheet or loaf pan depending on shape you like best.

Bake for an hour at 450 degrees F. or until crusty and sort of brown. (60- 70 minutes)

“OMG! That smells FORKING GOOD! I’m so glad you FORKING adopted me!”

Double batch I just did.

“Hey RUNT, it does smell good but we are suppose to FORKING wait for the food!”

“My bad…….I know I am very young and am only a Pip-Squeek and I don’t make the right decisions sometimes.” “I’ll do what ever you say my big beautiful Aussie Amazon Queen.” “Show me the way……..I need to learn.”

If you like to bake make a Scaccia Bread!