Got more zucchine? Sure you do!
With all the bran and zucchine bread happening lately, I was getting a bit worried about the sugar I was serving. I’d seen some zucchine breads made without sweetening here and there, but they didn’t strike me as particularly healthy. One cup of zucchine can do only so much for you. It can damage the glut of zucchine almost not at all, too.
I saw a savory loaf like this in an Italian cookery magazine the other day, but it was surprisingly presented as a main dish. It featured green beans and walnuts and it sounded pretty good, but I have not yet fed anyone who would think of it as a substitute for a pork chop. Maybe an antipasto would be more like it.
I went warrening through the cupboards to see what I had that could be thought of as healthy and might be cobbled together to make a healthy bread. Shazam! I think I’ve got it!
As a kind of compromise for Continental readers I am measuring many things here using conventional metric measures in unconventional ways. I simply could not get into weighing all of it today, but at least I have not left you to figure out what a cup is. I also used ordinary table setting silver rather than official measuring spoons since I know so many don’t have them to use.
Zucchine Breakfast Bread
Grease or spray a loaf pan with oil or fat. Mine is silicon so I just spray it. Were it metal I would grease it quite heavily and maybe flour it as well.
Preheat the oven to 180° C or 350°F
500 ml/2 cups sugar free corn flakes
125 ml/1/2 cup crusca (miller’s bran)
250 ml/1 cup plus 2 cucchiai / tablespoons milk
1 egg
125 ml/1/2 cup olive oil
250 ml/1 cup grated or shredded zucchine
1.5 inch/4 cm dried chili/peperoncino minced fine with a knife
Put all the above together in a medium sized bowl and stir them together.
500 ml/2 cups all purpose flour (farina 00)
2 teaspoons/cucchiaini baking powder (lievita in polvere)
¾ teaspoon/cucchiaino salt
Put all the above dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir them together
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir them together until they are moistened. If your mixture seems too dry, you could add a tablespoon/cucchiaio of additional milk.
60 g/2 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano, grated finely
60 g/2 ounces Provolone or other tasty cheese, grated
Add the above cheeses or those you choose to the batter. Stir in well, then scrape the heaqvy batter into the loaf pan and make it sort of level if you can.
Pop it into the oven and cook it for about one hour. It is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. This bread is dense and very moist so it doesn’t look as done inside as most breads do, but when the toothpick is clean, it’s ready. Let sit for a few minutes and then unmold it onto a cooling rack and allow it to cool quite through before wrapping it tightly. It was very tasty hot with butter, but you could taste the cheese more as it cooled a bit. I might toast it on the third day, but since it is so moist, it should keep very well. Eating it with formaggio fresco or cream cheese might be cheese overkill.
My tongue got tired, so I took some of this outside and fed it to four random Italians. They all said, “Buono!” and that they could taste the cheese. They could neither discern the bran nor the corn flakes, however, which is just as I wanted it. I find it is very difficult to get people to eat healthy stuff if they know it’s there.
I do not think it is possible to jam one more thing into this bread and still get it to cook through. I think I reached critical mass here. Try it, though, and it may help you overcome the sugar doses we get in summer with sweet drinks, gelato, fruits and desserts. It’s full of scrubbing bubbles for your arteries.
2 comments July 25th, 2008
