Sardinian Music Paper Bread Recipes

CARTA DA MUSICA

Steps:

• Prepare the Sponge:
• Mix the cup of flour with the semolina flour and place in a small bowl. Make a well in the flour. Add the salt to the water, then add the yeast. When the yeast is dissolved, pour it into the well. Incorporate the 1 1/4 cup flour by mixing with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of flour over the sponge. Let the sponge rest, covered, overnight in a warm place away from drafts.
• Next morning, if you do not have a brick oven, line the lower shelf of the oven with unglazed terra-cotta tiles or, as second choice, use a pizza stone. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Be sure to preheat the oven at least 1 hour before using it because the tiles themselves must reach that temperature.
• Prepare the Dough:
• Mix the 2 cups of flour with the 1/2 cup of semolina flour and make a large well in the flour. Place the sponge in the well along with the water. Carefully mix the sponge with the water, using a wooden spoon, then start incorporating the flour from the edges of the well. Gather the dough with your hands, form a ball and place the ball on a board or other work surface. Start kneading, incorporating more flour. Knead with a folding motion. At this point you will need some of the 1/2 cup of reserved flour. When the dough becomes very elastic, after about 5 minutes of kneading, lightly flour it, place it in a bowl and let it rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
• The classic size of the carta da musica is a disc of about 18 inches in diameter. Bearing in mind the size of your oven and even your own experience in handling large sheets of thin dough, divide the risen dough into pieces of comfortable size, remembering that the dough is to be stretched to the thickness of about 1/8 inch. Once the dough is divided into pieces, knead each piece with a little flour. Roll each piece very evenly to a uniform thickness, with no holes at all and no creases; otherwise the dough will not puff up completely in the oven.
• As 2 or 3 pieces of dough are rolled out, start baking them one at a time. Place a disc on a baker's peel, transfer it onto the tile, close oven and bake for 1 minute. Open the oven, gently turn the puffed-up dough over and bake for 30 seconds more.
• Remove bread from oven, transfer onto a board and immediately insert a sharp knife between the two puffed-up, separated layers of half-cooked carta da musica. Placing one hand over the puffed-up dough, use the other hand to cut all around to detach the edges of the layers from each other.
• It is best if a second person can do this cutting because the first will be completely occupied in rolling out dough and baking the remaining dough.
• Stack the separated halves on a towel, being absolutely sure that all are placed with the inner side down, so that no 2 inside parts will touch. Place a light weight over the stack of prebaked carta da musica halves to prevent them from curling up.
• When all the pieces of dough have been baked, placed under the weight and cooled, take the pieces and return them, one at a time, to the oven to bake for about 10 seconds on each side or until very crisp. Carta da musica should be very dry and extremely crisp. Continue until all the pieces of the bread are rebaked and crisp. Once all the layers are cold, you may wrap them in brown paper and use them for as long as several months if the humidity is not high.

SARDINIAN MUSIC-PAPER BREAD

Steps:

• 1 In a large bowl, combine the all-purpose or bread flour, the semolina flour, and the salt. With a wooden spoon, stir in the water until the mixture forms a soft dough. 2 Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough, adding additional flour as necessary, to form a stiff dough that is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with an inverted bowl and let rest at room temperature for 1 hour. 3 Place the rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450°F. 4 Divide the dough into six pieces. With a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface, roll out one piece of dough to a 12-inch circle, thin enough so that you can see your hand through it when the dough is held up to the light. Drape the dough over the rolling pin to lift it. Lay the dough on an ungreased baking sheet, being careful to straighten out any wrinkles. 5 Bake about 2 minutes or until the top of the bread is just firm. Protect one hand with a potholder, and holding a large metal spatula in the other hand, turn the dough over. Bake about 2 minutes more or until lightly browned. 6 Transfer the bread to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough. 7 To serve, break each sheet into 2 or 4 pieces. Store leftovers in a dry place in a tightly sealed plastic bag. VARIATION: To serve as an appetizer, reheat the bread on a baking sheet in a low oven for 5 minutes or until warm. On a plate, stack the pieces, drizzling each layer with extra-virgin olive oil and coarse salt or chopped fresh rosemary. Serve warm. From "1,000 Italian Recipes." Copyright 2004 by Michele Scicolone. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.