Silvia Colloca loves making bread. “They can write that on my grave,” she laughs when I ask her about her declaration on an that she’ll “never not be baking focaccia!”
Watching her , it’s easy to see why she loves doing it, and it’s the loaf that the host of recommends as a great starting point for beginners.
“If you are a beginner baker and you need relatively instant gratification,t with a simple recipe. For example, the foccacia genovese recipe is relatively simple because it doesn't require a long rising time [like some other loaves], which can be quite daunting, because you have to time it a little bit, and there's a bit of time management that goes into that.
"It's not like it's intrinsically hard per se, but the fact that you have to wait so much for something to rise can be off-putting. So foccccia genovese, It's a couple of hours, and it's a relatively simple dough to create, it's just flour and water and dry yeast, and then you are rewarded with this feather-like focaccia... so focaccia is a really good starting one.”
Silvia Colloca and her focaccia with caramelised onion. Credit: Plum Books / Alan Benson
There are endless variations on focaccia too – top it with caramelised onions, like her ; pay a visit to Puglia with her , which has mashed potato in the mix; or pump up the flavour with her focaccia integrale con olive e pepperoncino (wholemeal focaccia with olives and chilli).
Although these days she bakes several loaves of bread most weeks, Colloca knows well what it’s like to be starting out with breadmaking.
“I am self-taught as a baker. And what that means is that there's a lot of trial and error that went into learning the dos of baking bread. Failures can set you back, and they can be quite frustrating, because bread is not an instant gratification - even the simplest recipes are still a couple of hours of waiting for the dough to rise. And if that doesn't work, it's very frustrating. But as you become more equipped with the skills and technique, there is really hardly anything in the cookery world that satisfies me as much as watching something that is so transformative as bread baking.”
For those who like a crusty loaf, Colloca's , shared in Cook Like an Italian, is also beginner friendly.
Overnight bread baked in a cast iron pot Credit: Cook like an Italian
“You literally just have to mix it, and then you forget about it. For example, what I do is, mop up the kitchen at night, clean up, then put this dough in a bowl, which is as easy as putting flour, yeast, water and a little bit of salt, quick mix, no kneading, and leave it on the bench overnight. The next day, it's risen, and it's puffy and it's really bubbly. I add a tiny bit of flour, just enough to be able to shape it into a ball, and then I bake it, and you've got bakery quality bread, and you've spent, I don't know, 50 cents for it? It's a no brainer for me.”
Baking your own bread is cost-effective too
Which leads us to the other reason Colloca is keen to share her love of breadmaking – it’s a money saver. “I love bread. I eat bread every day, as an Italian I think it's just part of my DNA, but also my kids – I've got two teenagers and a seven-year-old, the amount of bread we go through in a week, not funny. I mean, if I were to buy that, I'd be broke, especially now.
“With the current situation, the cost of living is to the point where it can be prohibitive to buy good bread. It's a once-in-a-while thing where you can go to a reputable bakery and get your big loaf of sourdough because it's very expensive. And there's a reason why it's expensive. It's because there's a lot of labour that goes into it and a lot of prime ingredients that go into it. But if you can learn to bake your own bread, it's very cost efficient.”
Alongside focaccia, several other breads are on regular rotation in her house.
“I make a almost every week, pretty much, because that is just the best thing to have. You know, you're having like a slow cooked something or another, and you have alongside a little bit of pizza bianca, and again it’s very easy to make and doesn't require enormous patience to see it through, and that is just incredible.
“And I make a loaf of sandwich bread for the kids very often, once or twice a week, at the very least… is enriched with a little bit of ricotta just to give it a bit more protein power, and it gives it an incredible, super fluffy texture”.
Silvia's favourite bread from her childhood
A bread recipe that brings back fond memories for Colloca features in her new cookbook, . are crunchy olive-oil crispbreads.
Schiacciatine croccanti, a crunchy olive-oil crispbread. Credit: Plum Books / Alan Benson
Sometimes you want something very simple in terms of flavours.
This bread is made by rolling the dough very thin and scoring it into pieces before baking. Brushed with oil and sprinkled with salt flakes before baking, the results are deliciously salty, crunchy golden crackers. They’re great for picnics, as Colloca confirms when we talk.
“It travels really well because it's spread quite thinly and it's so crunchy. Then you can just have it as it is, to be honest, because it's nice and salty and it's got the olive oil. So it ticks all those boxes, and sometimes you want something very simple in terms of flavours.”
In many ways, that sums up the appeal of bread: it’s a little bit of magic where a few simple ingredients are turned into a life-sustaining loaf, and Colloca hopes more people will discover this joy. “Once you try homemade bread, it's very, very hard to go back!” she says.
DISCOVER MORE OF SILVIA'S BREAD RECIPES
Tigelle Liguri (Ligurian style bread)
Watch Cook Like an Italian at SBS On Demnand.
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Cook Like an Italian with Silvia Colloca
