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bread, butter, salt and radishes

January 15th, 2008 · 17 Comments

you know, if you read the ny times dining section, about 147 blogs, a couple of cooking magazines and watch a few tv shows on well, food… you’re bound to pick up a thing or two. and you may notice that on occasion one certain dish may get a lot of attention in a relatively short span of time. this sudden favorite seems to unexpectedly pop up everywhere. no-knead bread is a current example of this phenomenon. that loaf has a PR team unlike anything i’ve ever seen… and eleventy million food obsessed people can’t be all wrong. so the idea hangs around in your head until suddenly the dough is in your oven and then look at you, you never before bread baker you. that smell is wafting from your kitchen like nobody’s business. unless you’re me.

because i don’t knead or no-knead bread. i buy bread. there are actually a few decent bakers here in nashville – well, one in particular and that’s ‘provence’. their rustic tuscan loaf is a thing of beauty. a huge 2 lb. disc, kind of floury white on top with the perfect chewy crust and big air pockets making it difficult for things like bruschetta toppings to keep from falling through, while still being the only worthy choice… but alas, that is not the what you see featured here because i wasn’t willing to drive the extra miles to procure the better bread. this is the ‘provence’ tuscan loaf’s impostor, ‘the fresh market’s’ version of that same italian regional loaf. not terrible, nor impressive. but it is doable. and being that ‘the fresh market’ sells THE mother of all butters – there i was and there it was and here we are and happy and ready for a winter picnic.

so i love this little sandwichy thing. it’s what’s good about the world. surprisingly simple, yet wondrous.

those europeans… they know a thing or two.

Tags: sandwich

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