This office is full of passionate people – car enthusiasts, extreme mountain bikers, hunter/gatherers, rock-climbers, artists, musicians – but one passion most of us have in common is for good food. Simon, one of our senior engineers, has taken this passion further than most – travelling to Italy, Australia and around New Zealand indulging in cooking classes with his equally food-obsessed wife. Also an avid cook-book worm, he often brings in recipes he thinks we in the blog team may find interesting.
And so it was serendipitous that while we were planning our team trip into the wine country of Central Otago that Simon brought us in a slice of this Schicciata con l’uva to taste after he had tried his hand at making it over the weekend. Central Otago is well known for producing deep, rich Pinot Noirs, and it seemed an obvious choice to collect some of these grapes and give it a go ourselves.
Schiacciata con l’uva is a traditional bread made in Tuscany in the autumn. It is delicious flat bread topped with pinot wine grapes, and is delightfully rustic. Any pizza or focaccia-type dough can be used for the base, sweet or savoury. I used our focaccia dough recipe that we have blogged previously, kneading by hand this time which was a first for me – seems to be quite therapeutic! The link also has tips for making with a breadmaker.