The Phantom Moon

Casatiello Napoletano Recipe

Have you ever heard of Casatiello Napoletano?  It's a peppery and savory bread filled with delicious salami and pecorino cheese that many Italians (including my husband's family) enjoy during Easter.  My Mother In Law made this for me when my hubby and I were dating and I absolutely loved it.  She's been making this bread for ages and only stopped until recently since she hasn't been feeling her best.  I thought since I've been baking like a madwoman anyway that I would surprise her, my hubby and the rest of the family by trying my hand at making my own.

So here's my version of Casatiello Napoletano.  I've taken a few recipes that I found online and tweaked them to work for me since there are so many different variations.  Most of the recipes were in Italian and when I translated one on Google here's what I got "Place the flour, put yourselves in the middle lard, salt, pepper, and helping with other warm water, mix everything until dough is soft that you will work hard for ten minutes tapping on the table" ... umm, maybe it got a little messed up in translation?  Lol.  If you'd rather not go through that headache yourself you are welcome to try my recipe below.

So here it is, the tried and true recipe that has worked like a charm and was given multiple thumbs up from my err, picky, family ...

Here are two baked versions of the Casatiello ...
Casatiello on the left was made in a bundt pan and inverted,
the one on the right was made in an Angel Food pan and is more traditional

Casatiello Napoletano Recipe

Ingredients
400 g flour
250 ml water
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast
2 1/2 tsp of pepper
100 g lard
150 g baby genoa salame (cut into small squares, about a 1/4 inch)
200 g pecorino romano (cut into small squares, about a 1/4 inch)

Directions
Combine flour, water, salt, sugar, yeast and pepper.  Mix ingredients for 10 minutes or until well combined.  Lightly grease bowl and place dough, covered in plastic wrap, in a warm place for 1 hour to rise.

Mix rested dough with lard and let rest for another hour.  When mixed, lightly spread lard onto dough and incorporate well so that you do not leave lumps of lard in the dough (this will make is greasy).

Carefully mix in by hand the cubed meat and cheese.  Place in greased (sprayed or spread with lard) angel food or bundt pan and let rest for at least another hour or until doubled.  20 minutes before the bread is ready, preheat oven to  400°.

Cook at 400° for 45 minutes.  Raise the temperature to 450° and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until the bread achieves a nice caramel color.

Since it's a pretty rich and savory bread, they are usually made just once a year around Christmas time.  That being said, I've made this 4 times already in the last 2 months.  Now that my hubby knows that he can pretty much have this yummy bread on demand (instead of having to wait for it once a year from his momma) he's in heaven.  I think I've created a monster, lol.

Enjoy and have fun making your own Casatiello!

White Bread, Baby

As it turns out we are a big bread family.  And since I've been baking bread like crazy around here, it was only natural that I'd eventually tackle making a loaf or two of white bread.  Or maybe that should have been the first thing I made versus Artisan Bread?  No difference at this point I guess, but today was the day for White Bread.  And let me tell you, I don't know that we'll be able to go back to a regular Stroehmann loaf again ...

It was an extremely easy bread to make and less than 2 hours later I had two steaming loaves of delicious bread taunting me as they cooled on my counter.

I've had two slices so far (each with butter, thank you) and BB and my Mom have enjoyed a slice or two as well.  Here's the recipe if you'd like to take a stab at making some delicious bread of your own this week:

Traditional White Bread
adapted from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients
4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 tablespoons white sugar
2 1/2 cups warm water (100-110 degrees F)
3 tablespoons lard, softened (or vegetable oil)
1 tablespoon coarse salt
6 1/2  to 7 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Directions
* In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let bloom for 10 minutes until the yeast develops a nice foam.  Stir in the lard (or oil) and mix.  Slowly mix in flour, a cup at a time until the dough is not too sticky.  Knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes.
* Lightly oil or spray a large bowl, then place the dough in the bowl making sure to turn and coat it lightly with oil. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
* After it's had time to rise, turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves into two lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rise again until doubled in volume, about 40-60 minutes.
* Bake risen loaves in a 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.  Allow to cool on racks before slicing. 

I plan on trying other recipes as well but this baby is totally a keeper.  Maybe I should cut up a piece, slather on a little honey and warm up a small glass of milk to fill my belly before bedtime ...

So Far This Month

I have ...

* Read 5 books on my Kindle Fire.  Have I told you how much I love that darn little piece of equipment?  Although my husband isn't a fan of the bright light he swears is in his face while I read in the middle of the night, it's so much better than a tablelamp so he shouldn't complain too much.

* Baked countless breads (both savory and sweet), rolls and have perfected a recipe or two that have been getting on my nerves.  I even got compliments this evening from my MIL from something I made her ... holla!! :)

* Watched Puss In Boots and was a bit dissapointed.  It was definitely not what I expected and I honestly can't say that I'd watch it again.  Sorry, Puss!  You're super cute though.  And super sessy wit da ladies.

* Started writing down my dreams in a little notebook beside my bed.  I've had a couple of strange / disturbing / hilarious / wacky dreams in the last few months and I'm looking for possible connections in them with real life, if there are any.  Also, have you even had that moment when you thought to yourself during a moment of deja vu ... "I swear I've dreamed this!".  And if not, I can always read back years from now and laugh / smile / cringe at all of the funky things running through this noggin' of mine.

* Played 'Draw Something' daily with my buddy Kelly, plus random folk as well.  Can I say that it's total bull that the counter jams at '99', though?  My husband told me I needed an intervention but once I realized 99 was the highest the counter could climb, my interest waned and I haven't touched it as much since.  Ah well, there are better things to do right?

* Really started gathering homeschooling paperwork, material, etc for BB and I.  But that, my dears, is another post entirely.

* Drawn and colored oodles and oodles of pigs and angry birds.  Or as BB says, her cousins.  I swear I even find myself doodling them on To-Do Lists and anything else I happen to be writing on.

How colorful has your month been so far?

Easter Spread

Happy Easter!  I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter with their friends and families, and had a chance to stuff your bellies full of delicious food.  We were able to celebrate with both my hubby's side of the family as well as mine which was perfect.  

During Easter we normally buy yummy sweets and chocolates for the kids / adults in the family, but since we've confirmed that BB has a tree nut allergy we decided to change things up a bit this year and make everything homemade.  It took a full day of baking, pounds of flour, sugar, butter and even some dyed eggs but in the end the results were super delicious ...

I managed to make 48 Dinner Rolls, 6 Easter Breads and 1 Casatiello.  Not bad considering this was the first time I made each of these babies!

This was the basket for my In-laws with the Casatiello which even got a thumbs up from my MIL (yahoo!).  I plan on tweaking each of these recipes ever so slightly and I'll post the updated recipes in the next few weeks or so.  Especially the Casatiello recipe, since it was a huge pain in the tookhes to find to begin with (plus finding it in English and not Italian was doubley hard).

And here are the cuties all wrapped up and ready to go ...

The goodies were devoured by everyone and I even snuck in a roll later on that night with a nice glass of milk.  Double yum, my friends.  I hope everyone had a blessed and happy Easter as well!

Hello Spring

The weather has been gorgeous around here lately and I've been lucky enough to have the prettiest blooms sprouting out around my house.  

These beauties were "gifts" from the family that lived here previously and I'm so happy they made some of the selections that they did (with the exception of some of the bushes we took down which were absolute mosquito magnets!).

I'm hoping that this year I'll be able to make more of a dent in our landscaping and brighten up the front of our house and yard.  In the meantime, check out this fantastic DIY that I spied through Pinterest that I'd love to make for my front entryway, but I'm guessing it would look just as great out back as well ... Weekend DIY Project: Stacked Planterss For Your Home Sweet Home.  Now pardon me while I tell the Mr. we're headed to the Home Depot / neighborhood nursery this weekend to make this happen.