Editor's note:The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Paula Wolfert's bookThe Slow Mediterranean Kitchen.Wolfert also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page.
Here's a fast bread for slow foods. Small as a pancake, these easy-to-make, grainy-textured griddle breads are similar to those sold on the streets of Casablanca and Tunis. No yeast is required. A combination of coarse semolina and fine pasta flour provides a butter-colored interior and blotchy black exterior.
Serve these breads as a hot hors d'oeuvre with North Africanherb or tomato jamsor for breakfast brushed with butter or argan oil and honey.
Ingredients
Makes twelve 5-inch rounds
Step 1
1. In a mixing bowl, combine the pasta flour and semolina. Add the stick of melted butter and rub the mixture together with your hands until sandy. Mix in the sugar and salt. Mix 1/2 cup of water into the dough; it should be crumbly. Let stand a few minutes, then gradually add more water until you have a soft dough, about 1 cup in all.
Step 2
2. Transfer to a food processor and pulse 30 times to blend. The texture should now be very soft and moist. Turn the dough out onto an unfloured work surface. Using lightly buttered hands, knead it until silky, 1 to 2 minutes. Cover the dough loosely and let rest for at least 30 minutes.
Step 3
3. Preheat a cast-iron grill or a ridged pan over medium heat. Preheat the oven to 250°F. Lightly grease the cut side of the onion with melted butter or oil and quickly rub the heated pan. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces. On a buttered or oiled baking sheet, press out one portion of the dough into a 5-inch round. Cover loosely with plastic and repeat to form the remaining flatbreads. Grill the breads, one at a time, until they are golden and speckled with black spots, turning once; it should take 4 minutes total. Serve the breads hot off the grill, or wrap in foil and keep them warm in the oven for up to 30 minutes.
Paula Wolfert shares her tips with Epicurious:
Step 4
•比橄榄油,深红色的色调,摩洛哥坚果油oil will impart a rich, nutty, earthy flavor to the griddle breads. This traditional Moroccan ingredient comes from the nuts of the argan tree, which grows only in southwestern Morocco. The oil is available at www.berbersources.com and www.exoticaoils.com. Since it takes approximately 12 hours to extract a liter of oil from the nuts, it's an expensive—but inimitable—ingredient. It can also be used as a finishing oil for vegetables or lentils.
•Wolfert cautions against substituting other types of flour in this recipe: The combination of fine semolina (pasta flour) and course semolina is essential to the bread's distinctive texture. Coarse semolina is available at www.kalustyans.com or from Todaro Brothers (877-472-2767 or eat@todarobros.com).
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Reviews (3)
Back to Topwhat's the onion for? am i missing something?
seattlecook
9/15/2007
I always feel cheated when a recipe is supposed to be really quick but it takes a long time to cook the entire quantity. Sure, it's only a few minutes for each flatbread, but unless you have a few large grillpans this will take a while. I've never had the real thing on a street in Tunis, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I also couldn't get coarse semolina; I tried both the website listed above and 3 speciality shops. I really wanted to try the recipe though (Paula Wolfert, stop reading here!) so I figured that couscous is semolina and, well, it seems pretty coarse to me. I ended up with tasty, dense and heavy little pancakes. The texture was soft and chewy, which I liked but I don't know if that is what they are supposed to be like. They're greasy because they're cooked in a lot of butter. On the whole, I liked them and ate them, but I didn't impress my dinner guests with them.
Anonymous
Boston
5/27/2005
These were really delicious with the Herb Jam with Lemon and Olives, but they were really delicious on their own, too! An easy alternative to boring old biscuits.
Anonymous
Brooklyn, NY
3/26/2005
