No-knead ‘Ciabatta Rustica’

One of the things we all miss the most in the UK is a good, freshly baked loaf of artisan bread. In fact, while in our Italian peninsula, from the tip to the toe of the ‘boot’, bakeries (even supermarkets’ own ones!) offer a huge selection of local specialties for an affordable price, we find quite difficult to find the same availability (and affordability!) of artisan bread in the UK, particularly in London, where prices can skyrocket in comparison to the rest of the country.

As usual, the Linguini’s philosophy is: do it yourself at home!
We know that many of you have tried during the 2020 lockdown. Flour and yeast literally disappeared from the shelves of the grocery shops and they became luxury items. But then we all went back to our pre-pandemic lives and the art of baking not always matches with our schedules.

So Linguini comes to rescue with this hassle-free recipe to bake a wonderful Ciabatta Rustica at home. It requires only 2-3 hours (mostly waiting time) and, more importantly, no knead at all!

No-Knead ‘Ciabatta Rustica’

A delicious loaf of homemade bread (and no need to knead!)

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Proving time 2 hours hrs

Course Bread

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

  

• 250 grams Strong Wholemeal Bread Flour
• 250 grams Strong White Bread Flour
• 410 grams Water at room temperature
• 5 grams Dry Yeast
• 8-10 grams Salt

Instructions

 

• In a large bowl combine the two types of flour and add the yeast.
• Pour water and stir with a spatula until blended. Add the salt and stir again until it is fully incorporated.

  The dough must be coarse and sticky (don't overmix!)
  
• Let the dough proving until it has doubled in size (approximately 2-3 hours depending on the external temperature).
  
• Transfer the dough on a foil of parchment paper generously dusted with flour. The dough will be very sticky, so you may want to use a spatula to help the process.
  
• Grease your fingers with some olive oil and shape the dough into the traditional Ciabatta shape.
  
• With a sharp movement, flip the Ciabatta over a tray covered with parchment paper and semolina flour.
  
• 
• Your Ciabatta can now go to the oven. Cook it at 220° for 40 minutes. Let it cool completely before slicing it!
  

Notes

This recipe uses half of wholemeal flour to give the Ciabatta a stonger and more delicious flavour. Of course, you can prepare this Ciabatta with all white flour or with all wholemeal flour. You may just need to adjust the liquid in the recipe accordingly. In fact, wholemeal flour absorbes less liquid than wholemeal flour, so if you decide to use only white flour you will probably have need to add less water to your dough (and viceversa!).

Dry yeast can be replaced with 10 grams of fresh yeast.

Keyword Bread, Ciabatta, Loaf