A Special Bake of Sicilian Sesame Semolina (July 31-August 1)
And how to turn this Bakehouse classic into Sicilian pane cunzatu
Good news for all the folks who’ve been missing the Bakehouse’s Sicilian Sesame Semolina—it’ll be making a special two-day appearance next weekend! If you love it like I do, swing by and grab a loaf, or three—it freezes beautifully. Don’t hesitate to order ahead; we’d be thrilled to hold some for you!
For those who don’t know it well, semolina is the bread of Sicily. Made from silky, finely milled golden semolina and baked with a sesame-coated crust, you’ll find it in most every bakery on the island. For many Sicilians, it is, literally, their daily bread. I agree with Bakehouse Co-Managing Partner Amy Emberling, who says, “I really enjoy that bread—to eat and just to look at. The color of the crumb is so beautiful!”
A few years ago, we set out to make our Sesame Semolina bread even better by baking it with flour milled fresh right here at the Bakehouse. The experiment elicited stellar results. As we often say, “You really can taste the difference”—in this case, the difference that fresh milling makes. The bread was already excellent, but milling the grain on-site took it to an entirely new level.
Part of what I’m looking forward to next weekend is working to turn slices of the Sesame Semolina into traditional pane cunzatu—essentially, an especially tasty Sicilian version of bruschetta. In dialect, the word “cunzatu” means “dressed” or “seasoned.” It was typically imagined as the food of poverty, something farmers would take with them out into the fields.
Cunzatu is not hard to make, but it’s terrific to eat: toasted slices of semolina bread, dressed generously with a really good olive oil and topped with slices of the fresh heirloom tomatoes that are starting to come in for the season. I like to press the tomato into the bread gently, so its juices are all absorbed. Then layer on some anchovies—Ortiz or Fishwife are my favorites—and sprinkle dried oregano on top. I’m partial to the wild oregano on the branch that we get from Greece and the folks at Daphnis and Chloe.
You can, of course, add other ingredients to your taste. My friend Elizabeth Minchilli writes about making cunzatu with wild greens she’d gotten at the market. Some folks like to add capers, others a semisoft cheese. If you want, you can even turn it into a sandwich—in which case you should wrap it in foil and let it sit a bit so the flavors meld—or into salad croutons. There’s so much you can do with Sicilian Sesame Semolina!
