Bread like Old World Italian
Pane is Italian Bread
With diabetes spreading like an epidemic, many blame bread and baked goods. However, bread was a staple to the Italian people. Like rice was to the Chinese, bread went with everything. It was nothing like the bread we developed in the United States. It was traditional to pick up warm bread after mass on Sundays. I was raised on the West side of Buffalo and was fortunate to have many Italian bakeries nearby. Names like Costanzo, Christiano, and Roma bakeries were a part of our culture. We grew up accustomed to the wonderful aroma from the bakeries and the fine Italians who took pride in their work. Today, we see a return to those wonderful days in the artisan bakers, like Pat Christiano and Nick Greco who pass on the secrets of good baked bread. Authentic Italian bread has 4 ingredients: flour, water, salt and time! Instead of 2 ½ hours, the process includes an 11+ hour fermentation time. The time invested creates genuine Old World Flavor, thinner, crisper crust, and noticeably improved texture. It is not gummy when chewed and was always used with soups and stews as well as pasta dishes and sandwiches. No one could resist mopping up the spaghetti sauce after a dish of spaghetti, The dishes were left without a speck of sauce as though they had been wiped with a towel.
The new bakers have refined the process for full fermentation to develop the flavors, and the side benefit is that this inhibits staling, without any additives, so you can enjoy the bread at home a day or so after purchase.
The new bakeries had to invest over a $1 million in new equipment, to permit the pre-fermentation that allows the flavor to develop gradually in the bread as it’s fermenting. It tastes like grandma’s bread and many of the local store bakeries have it available warm and straight from the oven. Many bakeries have to charge almost $4 a loaf, but Wegmans has Pane Italian (14 oz.) for only $2. It is delightful to the palate and to remember grandma when biting into this delicious Italian bread without all the chemicals and high fructose corn syrup.
My grandparents were born in 1880 in Sicily and lived to 1968. The lived a long life and salted their meat and aged it with no refrigeration. The goat milk, chickens and eggs were fresh and the wine was made from their own homegrown grapes. All meals were accompanied by red wine and a prayer of thanks. All four of my grandparents fed their own chickens and raised 8 and 9 children in four room houses without plumbing. Each grandparent was less than 5 foot in height and hard-working. Every child carried his or her share of duties to keep the family healthy, clean and well fed.
Some say, if you live long enough, things will come around to your way of thinking. I am lucky at 7 decades to have seen and known all of my grandparents and enjoyed the love of uncles, aunts and dozens of cousins. They all grew up strong, and the values they were taught gave them the strength to carry on all that they were taught.
Bread was not the real culprit in type 2 diabetes as much as the greed of stores who looked to cut down on time and quality additives that were harmful to our digestion and changed the muscle of a previous generation to the fat, flab and lack of energy we see in our youth.
With diabetes spreading like an epidemic, many blame bread and baked goods. However, bread was a staple to the Italian people. Like rice was to the Chinese, bread went with everything. It was nothing like the bread we developed in the United States. It was traditional to pick up warm bread after mass on Sundays. I was raised on the West side of Buffalo and was fortunate to have many Italian bakeries nearby. Names like Costanzo, Christiano, and Roma bakeries were a part of our culture. We grew up accustomed to the wonderful aroma from the bakeries and the fine Italians who took pride in their work. Today, we see a return to those wonderful days in the artisan bakers, like Pat Christiano and Nick Greco who pass on the secrets of good baked bread. Authentic Italian bread has 4 ingredients: flour, water, salt and time! Instead of 2 ½ hours, the process includes an 11+ hour fermentation time. The time invested creates genuine Old World Flavor, thinner, crisper crust, and noticeably improved texture. It is not gummy when chewed and was always used with soups and stews as well as pasta dishes and sandwiches. No one could resist mopping up the spaghetti sauce after a dish of spaghetti, The dishes were left without a speck of sauce as though they had been wiped with a towel.
The new bakers have refined the process for full fermentation to develop the flavors, and the side benefit is that this inhibits staling, without any additives, so you can enjoy the bread at home a day or so after purchase.
The new bakeries had to invest over a $1 million in new equipment, to permit the pre-fermentation that allows the flavor to develop gradually in the bread as it’s fermenting. It tastes like grandma’s bread and many of the local store bakeries have it available warm and straight from the oven. Many bakeries have to charge almost $4 a loaf, but Wegmans has Pane Italian (14 oz.) for only $2. It is delightful to the palate and to remember grandma when biting into this delicious Italian bread without all the chemicals and high fructose corn syrup.
My grandparents were born in 1880 in Sicily and lived to 1968. The lived a long life and salted their meat and aged it with no refrigeration. The goat milk, chickens and eggs were fresh and the wine was made from their own homegrown grapes. All meals were accompanied by red wine and a prayer of thanks. All four of my grandparents fed their own chickens and raised 8 and 9 children in four room houses without plumbing. Each grandparent was less than 5 foot in height and hard-working. Every child carried his or her share of duties to keep the family healthy, clean and well fed.
Some say, if you live long enough, things will come around to your way of thinking. I am lucky at 7 decades to have seen and known all of my grandparents and enjoyed the love of uncles, aunts and dozens of cousins. They all grew up strong, and the values they were taught gave them the strength to carry on all that they were taught.
Bread was not the real culprit in type 2 diabetes as much as the greed of stores who looked to cut down on time and quality additives that were harmful to our digestion and changed the muscle of a previous generation to the fat, flab and lack of energy we see in our youth.
posted by Stan Kent at
10:45 PM
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