One of the things that concerned me a bit before embarking on this project wasn't the cooking. Not that the dishes here are easy. They're not. But I feel pretty confident in the kitchen. Instead, the availability of certain ingredients is what I think may be a bit of a challenge. Also, some of those ingredients are not your usual fare. The warm testa antipasti, which calls for half a pig's head, is a perfect example. Where am I going to get half a pig's head? Also, once I get it, am I going to be able to work with it? It's a bit intimidating.
But then there are the more common, yet still hard-to-find ingredients. In this case, winesap apples. None of the markets near my home (including Whole Foods) carry them. So part of my Cooking Babbo state-of-mind is to be on the look out for such ingredients and snap them up as I find them.
Last week we took the kids and my mom to the Union Square Green Market in New York. Given the time of season, there wasn't much. Breads, cheeses, and, wouldn't you know it, tons of apples. I walked into the Hawthorne Valley Farm tent and, lo and behold, there they were, winesap apples.
Basically, this dish is a brushcetta of sorts. Toasted crusty bread, topped with San Daniele prosciutto and a spoonful of winesap apple marmellata.
Following my "make it from scratch" ethos, I had made my cheat's version of no-knead bread. It's extremely simple and takes about 7 to 8 hours from start to finish instead of the usual 22 to 24 hours.
Mix together 3 cups of bread flour, 2 teaspoons of kosher salt, and a 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast. Mix these ingredients well to make sure the yeast and salt are evenly disbursed in the flour. Then mix 1.5 cups of very warm water with a 1/4 teaspoon of red wine vinegar. (The vinegar mimics the slow fermentation.) Add to the dry ingredients and mix well to hydrate the flour. Start with a wisk and then mix with your hands. The dough should just come together and be too wet to knead. If flour is gathering into the bottom of your bowl and not being absorbed into the mass of dough, add a touch more water--a few drops at a time. I have found that I needed to add a bit more water on very dry days.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or one of those plastic bags you put vegetables in at the supermarket) and let it rise for 6 to 8 hours.
Then take the dough out, push it down into a disc and fold the left third over the middle third, and the right third over the rest, and form a boule. Place the boule, seam side down on a floured surface and cover with a damp towel. Let it rise for an additional 60 to 90 minutes.
If you have a proofing basket, flour it and place the boule into the basket, top side down, like this:
During the last 30 minutes of the rise, put a dutch oven (with the lid) in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees. After the dough has risen and the oven has preheated, drop the dough into the dutch oven, top with the lid, and put it back in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the lid, turn the temp down to 450 degrees, and bake for 5 to 7 minutes more. Let the bread cool on a wire rack:
The marmellata starts with 4 winesap apples.
Peeled and cored.
To make the marmellata, the apples are cooked in a simple syrup for 10 minutes. Then a mixture of mustard seeds, mustard oil, and Cole-man's dry mustard are added:
And here's the dish:
I drizzled a bit of DaVero extra virgin olive oil over the marmellata. Wow. This was a knockout. It was a salty-sweet combination and a wonderful contrast of textures from the silkiness of the prosciutto to the warm, soft marmellata to the crunchy bread. We've added this to Heather's birthday party menu.
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