Note: This month's Padre Pio's Corner features an article submitted by Francesca Franchina, a spiritual child of Padre Pio. Francesca Longo Franchina, MS Ed. is Past President of The Order Sons of Italy John Pirelli Lodge #1633 Dayton, OH; OHIO OSIA Recording Secretary; and National Delegate to the Biennial National OSIA Convention. She is a program host and Programming Assistant on Radio Maria Ohio. You can listen on line www.radiomaria.us and reach her by E Mail: franchinacom@aol.com . She hosts Francesca and Friends every Wednesday 11:30 AM -12:30 PM ( EST) broadcasting from the University of Dayton Marian Library in Dayton, Ohio interviewing Theologians, Mariologists, and lay people from all over the world. She also hosts THROUGH THE TUMMY TO THE HEART: Italian Soul Food Sprinkled with Evangelization every Tuesday except First Tuesdays 5:00 PM –5:45 PM There are Radio Maria stations in LA,TX, NY and Chicago. Listen also on the internet www.radiomaria.us Click on the radio icon, “Listen Live” Next click on English, scroll down to Radio Maria United States and over to your radio icon. Call in toll free 800-333-MARY (6279) You also can listen to Italian radio broadcasts directly from the East Coast, Canada and Italy. Radio Maria originates in Turino, Italy and is heard in over50 countries.
THROUGH THE TUMMY TO THE HEART; ITALIAN SOUL FOOD SPRINKLED WITH EVANGELIZATION
C. 2004; 2008 by Francesca M. Longo Franchina, MS Ed.
Special to Italian Catholic Online - September, 2008
From: RECIPES FOR LIVING AND LOVING: Italian Bread and Other Recipes and Stories from Mamma Francesca’s Cuccina
Bread is good for us…. Manna come down from heaven as brought to us by Padre Pio! “We live not by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
We eat good food to nourish our bodies, which house our spirits, our souls. We are told by Jesus to ask for our daily bread in the perfect prayer He taught us, which comes from the Jewish faith, The Pater Noster. “Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.” We are asking for everything we need to sustain us through the day.
In our Italian tradition there are lots of sayings and customs pertaining to bread:
1) “He/she is like a piece of bread.” Meaning: He/she is good; pure, nice, great qualities!
2) “She has lots of bread to eat yet.” Meaning: She is inexperienced, immature in many ways.
3) When a baby is carried out the door on the way to Baptism becoming a child of God, the grandmother (Nana/ Nonni) throws fresh breadcrumbs on the child.
Interpretation: “You are going to become pure, like bread; like Jesus! You are going to meet Jesus, Our Bread come down from Heaven!”
4) “Never put a loaf of bread upside down on the table!” Meaning: Bread is significant of Jesus and we do not want to disrespect Him.
5) There is always at least a slice of bread set on the table for every meal.
Interpretive Meaning: A reminder that Jesus is present at the table during the meal.
In our family these are customs and traditions that we practiced and shared to be lovingly carried into the next generation about bread.
Meals are meant to be holy encounters when families and friends sit and eat together. Of course, raising five Sicilian-American sons, meals often were meant to be holy, but sometimes turned wholly upside-down: “Mom he’s breathing on me…POW!” or “MA he’s looking at me crooked…POW!” Or someone spilled a gallon of milk or fell off the pan or roaster he was sitting on for a booster seat. The best laid plans for calmness, serenity and holiness often go astray when there are five sons with an age span of 14 years from youngest to oldest! One always pictures how it should be and, in reality if you can keep your sense of humor in the replay, it is more like a Road Runner cartoon. More stories later in this book. Yes, I do have stories! Do I ever have stories!
The working title of that other unpublished book is CHARISM OF MOMHOOD: MAMMA MIA! THIS IS A CHARISM? I have several unpublished books! On several topics! If I just would get the time to get them polished up and printed and distributed! I have boxes of articles and stored stories and even books for children! Some day…..but meanwhile let me share some moments with you on Italian Catholic Online.
St. Padre Pio is the beloved spiritual father of our family. I will share our stories about Padre Pio and how we came to know and love him in ongoing articles. He truly is a miracle worker and we come to know him in the breaking of the bread as he imitated Jesus in his priestly role of bringing us the Holy Eucharist and the breaking of the bread!
It is said that if you received Holy Communion from the hands of Padre Pio or went to him for Confession/Reconciliation he held you as his spiritual child. What a joy! Today, if you become a member of the World Apostolate of Fatima you are his spiritual child or if you write to San Giovanni Rotondo, Our Lady of Grace Monastery and the House for the Relief of Suffering where he lived and ministered, and ask to be enrolled as his spiritual child you will receive the little certificate verifying that great honor. I have lots of stories to share with you about Padre Pio, how we met up and how he helped us.
Padre Pio loved all of us and has millions of spiritual children all over the globe. I was introduced to him at Festa San Giuseppe in
We have five sons, and the last three were high risk pregnancies. Prayer has brought us through many crises in our lives, and I can attest that the prayer and protection of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and Padre Pio have been right there at the fore. In thanksgiving, I started a Padre Pio Prayer Group right after Festa San Giuseppe at St. Joseph Parish in downtown Dayton on First Fridays, and it is still in operation. Several more have been started in various areas in honor of Padre Pio, who asked us to start prayer groups in front of the Blessed Sacrament if we wanted to do something for him! And to lead pilgrimages!
Padre Pio teaches a great deal about the value of the Holy Eucharist, and it was the centerpiece of his ministry, bringing the Body and Blood of Jesus to us every day. He still adheres to his spiritual children participating in daily Mass and Communion for our good health and well-being - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. He wants us to be wholly holy!
Padre Pio ate very little himself. He was sustained on the Eucharist and one meal a day - at dinner, the meal in the middle of the day that we call lunch. He ate lightly - some bread, cheese and soups, whatever was served to him and a bottle of beer, I am told. He more or less was sustained by the Holy Eucharist. He enjoyed the camaraderie with his Franciscan Brothers at meal times and recreation, but his whole life revolved around his life of prayer and interceding for souls to be saved, healed and reconciled to Jesus.
Padre Pio loved the Blessed Mother and conversed with Jesus and Mary daily. The angels were his companions. He did battle with the Devil for souls, and when he was under attack physically, the Brothers would hear the commotion coming from his cell. When it was over, they would go in and find him lying on the floor bloodied with a pillow under his head. They would ask him, “How did you get the pillow under your head?” And he would answer, “The Little Mother came to put it under my head and to comfort me when it was all over.”
He would also holler at his Guardian Angel to help him as he was flying overhead when the Devil was pummeling him while doing battle for souls. Padre Pio would not give up to him, and he would say to the Guardian Angel, “You did not even come to help me!” But the Guardian Angel was not permitted to help him in that situation till the fray was over. Padre Pio still is doing battle for us and our families in Heaven to bring us to Jesus and our Blessed Mother!
Now I want to share a bit with you about my family, baking bread and
BREAKING BREAD TOGETHER….
In Scripture, we often read of people breaking bread together, that it is a great honor to be invited to someone’s home for a meal. Not only in the New Testament when we read of Jesus and His Apostles and Disciples, but how Our Lord even ate with sinners to bring them closer to the Father through the Breaking of the Bread. (HIMSELF!)
And what did he use for his most important meal? At the Last Supper, to teach of His great legacy to us, He left us His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. He took Bread in His hands and broke it and offered it to the Father and told His Disciples to do that in memory of Him and the same with the wine. The Bread and Wine become His Body and Blood at the consecration during Mass through the mystery of Transubstantiation. This is a great miracle, a wonderful gift given to us who believe in Him, and it is offered to all as we reconcile and come into unity with the Blessed Trinity.
In our tradition, a good Italian home always has bread crumbs on hand for cooking (and Baptisms!) Bread crumbs grated from dried bread are a staple along with olive oil, eggs, potatoes, green peppers, onions, garlic and pieces of Italian Cheese and grated cheese (Provolone, Pecorino, Romano, Romano and Parmesan and a variety of other cheeses) and dried sausage and cured meats. And, of course, we can’t forget pasta. We love “Lotsa Pasta!” With these wonderful ingredients as pantry staples, you can create many delicious dishes. I will share quick recipes, inexpensive, filling, nutritious and delicious foods that are fun to cook and absolutely savory to eat.
Italian Soul Food is truly soul food; it nourishes body, mind and spirit, as we have many traditions and customs revolving around the foods we eat. The recipes I am sharing in this book are recipes I used for Through the Tummy To The Heart: Italian Soul Food Sprinkled With Evangelization, an evangelization series I conducted at Immaculate Conception Church in Dayton and now on my weekly radio program for Radio Maria (can be accessed at www.radiomaria.us).
In our tradition, from the village of Termini Imerese, Province of Palermo, Sicily, bread is considered holy, significant of Our Lord Jesus. He broke bread and gave it to His disciples the night before He died. The next day, on Good Friday He died on the Cross for us. On the Cross, He was broken like the Bread He gave to His disciples. We hear the songs, Bread of Finest Wheat as we go to Holy Communion at Mass. Bread is important to our living, for the body as well as for the spirit. “Taste and see the goodness of The Lord.” There are so many beautiful Eucharistic songs we sing at Communion time.
Moses and 2 million Hebrews in his charge at the time went round and round in the desert for 40 years because they were stiff-necked. God was teaching them lessons in humility and obedience. God the Father was forming them to be His people, to be purified and perfected, as they are the apple of His eye. They could have gotten out a lot sooner with a lot less headache and heartache if they would have stopped grumbling and obeyed sooner. The only food the Israelites took with them when they fled Egypt and slavery under the Pharaoh was unleavened bread - bread that was not permitted to rise. They had their animals, but that was their bank account. God fed the 2 million every day with quail that landed in the evening and in the morning. God the Father sent bread down from Heaven – manna - which covered the desert like hoarfrost. They gathered it daily for their food, to get them through another day of grumbling and fumbling their way out of the desert. This is a most interesting story with interesting lessons for all of us today. God indeed does supply all our needs! Another beautiful song!
The Hebrews were not to gather too much, just enough for each person. If they kept the surplus of manna overnight it got wormy and spoiled. “Give us this day our daily bread”. Can this be a lesson for all of us even today? God was with them throughout their hard times, when he was molding them and forming them in His way.
Manna is mentioned by Jesus, who tells us He is the “Bread come down from Heaven”, that whoever eats of His Flesh and drinks of His Precious Blood will have life everlasting. God is so good! He thinks of everything. All we have to do is obey and enjoy the fruit of His creative, loving thought.
God has a way of getting our attention. He supplies all our needs, but we do have to be attentive to His ways. He sustains us in all things.
MAKING OUR TABLES HOLY
Let’s talk about bread and how we can make our tables holy. The Jewish table is set on Friday evening for Shabbat with a special cloth, with candles, bread, braided egg bread, wine and other tasty dishes. It is a very special Sabbath meal and celebrated by the lighting of the candles exactly at sunset. In the Jewish congregations and papers, there are timetables for sunsets on Fridays to inform the people when to begin Shabbat.
During Passover, Jewish people clean their homes and no residue of leaven is found in their homes. In some parts of Scripture, yeast is symbolic of evil, of decay, of putrefaction. During Passover, the Jewish people use matzo, bread without leaven and without yeast, significant of the fact that they had to flee their homes before the bread had risen.
When I make bread, it is a big deal. No joke it is a BIG deal! I love to make old-fashioned Italian bread by hand, no machines for me except when I am in a hurry and want the house to smell good!
I use five pounds of unbleached flour, five or six cakes of yeast, warm water, one tablespoon of sugar, one tablespoon of iodized table salt, and a heaping tablespoon of shortening (Crisco) worked in to give the bread a nice texture. Next, I proof the yeast by mashing down cakes of yeast with a fork or by emptying dry yeast into a small bowl and slowly adding warm water, stirring to make a loose paste with the yeast and water.
After emptying the flour into the turkey roaster, I sprinkle the salt and sugar into it and after seeing the yeast proofed (puffed up a bit) I pour in the yeast and start adding warm (baby bath temperature) water into the mixture till it is of a good kneading consistency.
After mixing and kneading a good bit for about ten minutes in the turkey roaster, until it’s no longer sticky and all the dry ingredients are mixed in my turkey roaster, I pat it gingerly and lovingly, and with my thumb make a visible cut-in, sign of the Cross on the bread dough! Cover it with a clean small table cloth or large dish towel and put it on top of the stove over the warm oven to rise.
About the Sign of the Cross/Star of David on the dough, I always made the Sign of the Cross on dough. Always did, always will. At first it was truly a gesture of prayer to make it turn out alright! Like a protection - that it turns out well, tastes good and brings enjoyment to all who eat it and reminds us of The Bread Come Down From Heaven!
One night our oldest son Anthony was teaching a gourmet cooking class at Ohio State, making our Italian bread, and he did the same thing, saying it was what his mom always did, so he did it too. A young Jewish man came forward and said, “Well, can I make the Star of David on it too?” And Anthony said, “Of course!” So now when I make the sign of the Cross on my bread it is more of a tradition and a remembrance of Jesus - Bread of Finest Wheat - our daily bread come down from Heaven! And the Star of David reminds me further of our Jewish roots in Christianity!
For some reason in my young married life, I was afraid to tackle anything that smacked of yeast. I did not know how to do yeast recipes. The Lucille Ball I Love Lucy piece concerning bread always stood out in my mind, how it was oozing out of the sides, top and bottom of the oven door. For good reason! It happened to me when I finally got the gumption to try to make homemade Italian bread!
It was a Christmas Eve. I called my aunt and said, “Aunt Madeline, I want the old fashioned bread recipe that you and your mom make. My mom has got this new fangled idea/recipe and it is not as good as the old kind you make. Please tell me how to make it.” It was early Christmas Eve morning and my folks were coming for dinner. Usually one does not try a new recipe for company or for a holiday, right? Well, I usually do everything different than most.
When I got married I did not know how to boil water. My husband will verify that when I boiled water, the bottoms of the pans fell out because sometimes I forgot to put the water in the pan! More on that later, like when I sterilized the baby’s bottles and, lo and behold, the aluminum foil stayed on the burner when I picked up the sterilizer. (The bottom of the pan stayed on the bottom of the burner, I thought it was aluminum foil till I raised up the sterilizer and looked at the bottom of it and saw the milk bottles!) Pandemonium let loose, as Anthony was crying for a bottle and I did not know if the bottles were cracked. Joe was mowing the grass since we were going to have 150 people over the next day for the Baptism. My Aunt Katie from Butler, PA called to ask how I was doing in that middle of the muddle!
Anyway, back to the bread. Aunt Madeline proceeded to give me the family recipe with the following instructions: “Take off your rings and wash your hands really good. Use clean paper towels to dry them. Take all broilers and stuff out of your oven and set your racks. (Italians always have stuff in their ovens! Like cracker boxes, store bought bread, coffee pot innards, stuff you want to hide from the kids…) Set your racks, the bottom one, the second slot from the bottom, the top one, the second or third slot from the top...like you bake cookies. Preheat your oven to warm, about 250 degrees. Get a bag of regular unbleached flour and dump it into your turkey roaster. Get five cakes or packs of yeast - not rapid rising, just regular yeast - and put it in a small bowl and melt it or dissolve it with warm water.” I have come to use rapid rising yeast as the process goes much faster, the more yeast you use the softer the bread, less it is more solid. (I use five or six for five pounds of flour.)
The yeast gets goopy, but you have to keep stirring till it is all dissolved and runny with neither clumps, nor bumps. Stir a heaping tablespoon each of salt and sugar into the flour. Throw a heaping tablespoon of shortening on top of the flour, pour in your yeast, and then get a pitcher of warm water and start mixing it all together, pouring half of the water at a time. Mix until it is all mixed in, not sticky. If it gets sticky, add a little more flour to handle.
Next, knead it good. With the right hand cup your hand under the dough from the back. Pull it over the top and push it down with the heel of your palm. Keep kneading this way till the consistency is like well chewed chewing gum, smooth and soft. Get all the clumps and gunk off the sides of the turkey roaster, add more water. When it is kneaded, about ten minutes...put a clean small tablecloth over the roaster and put it on top of the stove to rise. When it rises to the top of your turkey roaster, punch it down and knead it again. When it rises again, punch it down and knead and this time put it on your baking pans. Bake in the oven at 450 degrees till it sounds hollow! And looks done.” You should have seen me listening to the bread!
What Aunt Madeline failed to tell me on that beautiful Christmas Eve morning was how to form it. So I proceeded and after it rose again put it in the oven...I could hardly get it out of the oven. She did not tell me how many to form so I formed two loaves...out of five pounds of flour!
When I went to get the bread out of the oven, the tin buckled. The picture flooded my being….here was Francesca…in the Lucille Ball I LUV LUCY PROGRAM when she baked bread and it oozed out the oven door! The crust was delicious. The innards were not done! From then on I have made panini, little buns or little loaves of bread! Which still rise and rise again in the oven so they come like little round loaves of bread or Muffaletta.
To form buns, break off a piece of dough half the size of a regular sandwich bun, or larger if you want larger buns or mini round loaves. Take the piece of dough in both hands and stretch the dough with your thumbs on top of it, and tuck the top under the bottom. Do this several times for each bun. Set on a greased baking sheet. If you want sesame seed on the buns, lightly dip the top of the kneaded bun in a little bowl of water, then in the sesame seed, press harder and cover the top; place on the baking sheet, about two inches apart. I use old, large, round pizza pans from our restaurant, doing two circles around and one or two in the middle. (Leave room for the buns to rise on the pan and then they will rise some more in the oven.)
Set the bread tins (pizza pans) on the stove and on clean counter tops to rise again. Do not cover or your buns will be flat! (Flat buns are not flattering in any situation!) Crank your oven up to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. When double in size, put the first pan of panini or bread on the bottom shelf of your oven. Check in 15 minutes. When raised up and set, move to the top shelf and put the next pan in. Check in another 15 minutes. The colors should be golden and the bottoms golden. For crispier crust, bake longer. Or crisp them up when you re-warm or take them out of the freezer. Let them cool on pans or racks before putting in your clean turkey roaster, which you have lined with a clean table cloth. Then, fold the table cloth over all to keep fresh for a couple days. Or store in the freezer after cooling. As one listener to my radio program Through the Tummy to the Heart from Louisiana wrote, “It was delicious, but five pounds of flour makes a lot of bread!”
To re-warm: Preheat oven at 425 or 450 degrees, put thawed buns on stove rack second from the top. This will make the buns crisp. Warming also softens the inside. Or wrap lightly in aluminum foil to warm and soften. This recipe makes about 36 smaller buns or 30 larger buns (panini). If you want to try free-formed loaves, make five or six loaves, two on each tin, move up on the stove shelf when bread rises and is formed to the touch, raise to the top shelf to continue baking and brown.
You can serve the panini as they are with oil and or butter, but what my family absolutely loves right out of the oven or when warmed is to break or cut the panini in half (downward so each piece has sesame seed, not across; or slice in threes). You can make muffalettas, pizza or pizza fritta from the same dough.
For homemade Sicilian-style, bake at 450 degrees…(thick) Sicilian style pan pizza, grease a couple large pizza pans and one fourth of the dough and press it out into the pan till it is even. Let rise in the pan. You can half bake the dough and freeze or half bake the pie and then put your trimmings on it. But this tends to make the dough stiffer. If you put lots of stuff on the top when the pie is unbaked you run the risk of the under dough being goopy/steamed instead of baked...so I usually just put light toppings on...pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, Italian grating cheese, sauteed onion, pepperoni, green pepper and mushrooms, sprinkle with oregano and bake.
If you want the homemade focaccia…we said fawazza ala Siciliana…the way we used to make it when I was a child before all the other ingredients made the scene ala Americano…pizza bianco…white pizza….drizzle olive oil, sautéed onions pieces of tomatoes, and anchovies if you like them and sprinkle oregano over all and bake…
For pizza fritta, just take little gobs of the bread dough and knead like you did for the buns and let rise and fry in corn or vegetable oil at a hot temperature. Serve with pasta sauce over top and sprinkle with cheese; or serve hot with honey; or dipped in granulated sugar and you have zeppole! And my all time favorite...Sicilian Style Muffaletta: Hot panini out of the oven...split in half like a sandwich... score the dough with a fork and pour good olive oil on one side. Top with a slice or grated aged, sharp provolone cheese and grind fresh black pepper on the bread . Eat like a sandwich or make two sides with the oil, cheese and bread. Sicilian Soul Food at it best! Homemade bread is always good Italian comfort food!
And we remember, Jesus is our Bread of Life - we are nurtured spiritually and physically by Bread, the staff of life. Our Italian heritage is rich with the stories of our faith and culture intermingled with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Love it! Mangia and enjoy ALL the Blessings of our Faith and Heritage!
Pace e Bene
Francesca Maria
FRANCESCA FRANCHINA’S ITALIAN BREAD and FOCCACCIA
RECIPE FROM: THROUGH THE TUMMY TO THE HEART; ITALIAN SOUL FOOD SPRINKLED WITH EVANGELIZATION; C. 2006 by Francesca M. Longo Franchina; Used with Permission
Warm oven 250 degrees, unless you have a warm place to let the bread dough rise.
Remove your rings and wash hands and under finger nails good with hot water and soap! Use finger nail brush if nails are long.
You will need: Large Turkey Roaster; Large enough for 18-20 lb turkey
5 lbs. Unbleached All Purpose Flour (Not self rising)
5-6 cakes/envelopes fast rising yeast
1 heaping soup spoon each: salt, sugar and shortening (Crisco)
Water Pitcher of warm water… about 2 quarts
Unhulled Sesame Seed (if you like it; buy at health food store)
Hulled sesame seed looks anemic and has different taste.
PROCEDURE: Warm oven to 225 degrees for dough to rise on top of range;
Raise degrees to 425 when baking bread or 450 for baking pizza
1) In large turkey roaster: five pound bag of unbleached flour (not self rising)
2) Open packages and put yeast in cereal bowl.
If you want stiffer bread use less yeast. I use six!
3) With a fork, gradually mix very warm water with the yeast to make soft paste;
Mix till smooth, let yeast sit to proof.
4) Add to flour: one heaping soup spoon each: salt, sugar and shortening (Plain Crisco).
5) Pour yeast over the flour, salt, sugar and shortening,
6) Fill a plastic water pitcher (two quarts or so) with warm water like a baby bath,
Not too hot, not too cool…just right.
7) Gradually add water two or three cups at a time.
8) Swish around to moisten all the flour, I usually have some water left in the pitcher, probably use five- seven cups of warm water. If sticky add more flour till all remnants of dough come away from sides and bottom of roaster.
9) Knead in the turkey roaster for about ten minutes: With left hand hold the roaster steady and with right hand go to the far side and scoop up the dough and pull forward and push down with heel of your palm till all is mixed. Add more water to make soft dough, but not sticky. If still too sticky add more flour…keep kneading till smooth as a baby’s toosh! And all remnants of dough are gathered in the dough mass in the middle of the turkey roaster.
10) Make a sign of the Cross on the dough and/ or Star of David
11) Cover with a clean table cloth…card table size folded to cover lightly to leave room for dough to rise. Place roaster with dough on top of stove till dough rises up rounded above top of roaster or double in size.
12) Knock down the dough and knead again, for several minutes. Gather all the dough from sides and bottom of pan, if still too soft add a bit more flour. Let rise again!
13) Knock down again and then grease/oil your pizza pans or baking tins…I do not use bread pans like bakers use for American bread. Shape the panini and or loaves and put them on a large pizza pan or cookie sheet.
14) Take a glob of dough the size of a small bun and knead in both hands pulling dough and tucking the dough under the pannini…
15) If you like sesame seeds on top; put dry seed in a cereal bowl next to a cereal bowl of warm water… When finished put unused portion of seeds in bag in freezer to keep fresh till next time; when using again, defrost naturally or put in microwave for a minute or two to defrost.
16) Lightly dip the top of the panini in the warm water then press top of the panini firmly into the sesame seeds to coat and cover top liberally. Remember when the panini rise on the pan and again in the oven the sesame will spread over the top! So do not be stingy with the sesame seed.
17) Put panini on large pizza pans or cookie sheets starting at the outer edge leaving about two inches around as panini will rise again twice after being put on the pan, put at lease two inches away from each other in a circle and then another inner circle and one in the middle.
18) Put on stove top to rise…
19) Raise the oven temperature to 425 degrees for Panini, 450 for pizza.
Put all the dough on your pans and do not cover this time or panini or loaves will flatten.
When doubled in size, bake on bottom shelf of oven for about 15 minutes till raised and firmed, then raise up to the third shelf and put another pan on the bottom shelf for another fifteen minutes…..depending on size of your panini, it takes about 30 minutes…if you want the panini more brown bake longer, but they will continue to brown after taking out of oven too…Let cool on a rack or on pans…
20) By now you have washed your turkey roaster and lined the roaster with the clean table cloth you used to put the dough to bed when raising.. Line the roaster with the cloth or a clean one. When cooled, tuck in the cloth to keep your bread fresh for a couple days or freeze….in freezer bags.
21) Also makes great toast…you can also cut the panini down like slices…maybe three slices to serve like sliced bread. Great with butter too...and when they get harder, slice down, spread with soft butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and broil for toast..great taste!
22) Mufalletta: Right out of the oven or re-warmed…. cut the panini in half like for a sandwich and score the innards with a fork and spoon olive oil on the halves, sprinkle liberally with your favorite grated Italian cheese or thinly sliced aged provolone and grind fresh pepper on all and delight in a wonderful taste treat! Is your mouth watering yet..it will..
23) For pizza, or Focaccia, Thick Deep Dish Sicilian Pizza: flatten, toss or roll out about ¼ of the dough on your pizza pan, filling in all holes…this is work to spread it out. I toss it in the air to stretch it out. If you are game try it…it works…then lightly drizzle with olive oil, put sautéed onion slices, pieces of canned or fresh tomatoes, sprinkle good Italian grated cheese on top and pieces of anchovies if you like them, and sprinkle the top with oregano if you like oregano too. Use shredded mozzarella too, lightly.
24) Let rise on stove a few minutes and bake on lower rack till raised up then move to third shelf and put another on the bottom shelf, bake for about 15 minutes on each shelf or until crust is golden on bottom or to the degree of brown you like your crust...more you bake the crisper it will be..but this will be a soft bready focaccia, use less yeast if you want thin pizza.
You can also make regular pizza with pizza sauce and mozzarella, and some toppings of your choice but do not overload on the first bake, or the dough will be steamed and not cooked under the toppings…you can use pepperoni, sliced drained canned mushrooms, fresh green peppers and sautéed onions or raw onions...the sautéed onions gives it the Sicilian sweet taste...yummy! You can prebake and freeze and then add more toppings when you rewarm it and it will not be soggy or steamed then. Give it time to breathe.
Enjoy.
Francesca Longo Franchina, MS Ed. is Past President of The Order Sons of Italy John Pirelli Lodge #1633 Dayton, OH; OHIO OSIA Recording Secretary; and National Delegate to the Biennial National OSIA Convention. She is a program host and Programming Assistant on Radio Maria Ohio. You can listen on line www.radiomaria.us and reach her by E Mail: franchinacom@aol.com . She hosts Francesca and Friends every Wednesday 11:30 AM -12:30 PM ( EST) broadcasting from the University of Dayton Marian Library in Dayton, Ohio interviewing Theologians, Mariologists, and lay people from all over the world. She also hosts THROUGH THE TUMMY TO THE HEART: Italian Soul Food Sprinkled with Evangelization every Tuesday except First Tuesdays 5:00 PM –5:45 PM There are Radio Maria stations in LA,TX, NY and Chicago. Listen also on the internet www.radiomaria.us Click on the radio icon, “Listen Live” Next click on English, scroll down to Radio Maria United States and over to your radio icon. Call in toll free 800-333-MARY (6279) You also can listen to Italian radio broadcasts directly from the East Coast, Canada and Italy. Radio Maria originates in Turino, Italy and is heard in over fifty countries. WHJM (88.7 FM) Anna, OH Northern Ohio; WULM 1600 AM Springfield OH.
