Have you ever seen a bread that was so pretty that you knew you would have to make it. Well, that's the case with this bread. While I was looking for a different bread to make, I came across the recipe for Tomato, Basil, and Garlic Pane Bianco. What is there not to love - lots of fresh basil, sun dried tomatoes packed in oil, garlic, and Italian blend cheese - mmmmm, yum. As I said the thing that really got my attention was the way it looked. This bread makes a beautiful presentation with minimum work. The technique of filling, slashing, and shaping is super easy. The flavor matched the looks. It was great. When you look at it, you think that it would have a crunchy crust kind of like Italian bread, but it doesn't. The bread is a very soft and tender bread. Living in the sticks the challenges was to find sun dried tomatoes packed in oil and fresh basil. I way over bought the basil, but that leftover basil became a wonderful pesto (grilled chicken with pesto cream). One of the best things about this recipe was learning the technique. I want to make this again using different herbs and cheese to stuff it. I can imagine it with oregano, feta, and kalamata olives or cheddar, roasted poblano, roasted garlic, and bits of cured chorizo. Since it makes two loaves you can make one savory and one sweet. Dried cherries, mini dark chocolate chips, with a little cinnamon sugar would make a great dessert. This bread screams for you to use your imagination to fill it with anything you want.
Some of this bread made its way to Baton Rouge. Wayne and I had lunch with our buddy Anita before she moves to Hobbs, New Mexico. She's been to Hobbs several times, and from what I gather Pineville is happening when compared to Hobbs. I do love the southwest. A group of us went to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta a few years ago. It was one of those things that you see on travel shows and say to yourself, "Someday I'm going there." I was glad someday came. We arrived at the Fiesta grounds pre-dawn so we could see the Dawn Patrol. It was great to be able to walk among the balloons and take photo after photo. To see hundreds of balloons in the air was magical. As dusk settles on the fair grounds the Afterglow show begins. Who cares about fireworks. To see all of those balloons light up from their burners and glow in the dark was gorgeous. It was just so cool. It's definitely worth going to again.
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