ITALY: I made this rosemary bread with potatoes, which is not traditional, but it’s a common loaf in the bakeries around here. In Italy it is often scored with an asterix, and sprinkled with flakey salt – in an effort to recreate a bread that Luciano Pancalde read about that was described as having a rosemary aroma and a golden crust that “sparkled like diamonds”. I didn’t find out about that until after I baked it, but I’ll definitely do that next time!

STEP 1: Boil potatoes

• 300g potatoes
• 80 ml of water you cooked the potatoes in

1. Peel and chop potatoes, and place in a small pot. I chop them pretty small so that they cook fast, and so lots of potato starch seeps into the water.
2. Add 2 cups water and a teaspoon of salt.
3. Boil potatoes in salted water until tender.
4. Meanwhile, measure out the dry ingredients

STEP 2: Measure dry ingerdients

• 300g bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 7g yeast
• 2 Tbsp roughly chopped rosemary

1. Measure the dry ingredients and rosemary into the bowl of a stand mixer, or a mixing bowl
2. Whisk to combine.

STEP 3: Make potato mash

• 2 Tbsp butter

1. When potatoes are nice and soft, and before you drain them, scoop out about 1/2 cup of the water they’ve been cooking in
2. Drain, then return potatoes to pot, and over low heat, dry them out. Stir often, so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
3. Once there’s no more steam coming out of the potatoes, turn off heat.
4. Add the butter, then mash the potatoes well (no lumps), mixing in the butter until it’s melted and fully incorporated.

• 80g potato water (reserve extra)

STEP 4: Make dough + first rise

1. Add the potato mash to the dry ingredients and 80 g of the potato water (reserve any leftover).
2. Knead on #1 until everything is coming together and there’s no dry bits of dough hanging about at the bottom. If you can’t get those to mix in, add 1 Tbsp (no more) of the potato water to the bowl.
3. Once there are not dry bits, turn to #2 and knead until it cleans the sides of the bowl and is one ball on the dough hook.
4. Place dough in a oiled bowl and set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. About an hour, but it depends on the temperature of the room.

STEP 5: Shape loaf + second rise

1. Heat the oven to 450 (you’re going to turn it down to 425 once you’ve put the bread in for baking).
2. Knock the dough down, then turn dough out onto a lightly floured countertop and shape into a nice ball, with a tight surface. See the tips page.
3. Drop the ball into banneton (a flour-dusted cloth lined basket or bowl), smooth side down, seam side up. See No Banettone? video on the Tips page for how to make your own.
4. Cover and let proof for 30-40 minutes at room temperature to prove until almost doubled in size again.
5. Score
6. Bake the bread for 30 minutes.
7. Let cool completely on a wire rack before serving.