Schiacciata con l’uva

April 5, 2007

I was attending a master class session at the recent Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and got chatting to the woman sitting next to me.  She was about to celebrate the completion of four years’ house renovating with a two-day party. One of the highlights was going to be whole lamb on the spit. That led us on to a discussion on roast sucking pig, something else she wanted to try in the future.

“My husband is going to build me a wood-fired oven,” she said. How good is that. I could imagine sweeping aside the wood and vine cuttings and roasting a beautiful fat piglet to a nice golden tan under a slow gentle heat. I could also see myself firing up such an oven for today’s wonderful autumn dessert, a pie made with pizza dough and lovely juicy grapes.

Schiacciata con l’uva is made in central Italy during the grape harvest. The verb “schiacciare” means to crush, mash or press. Try finding wine grapes with flavour rather than large bland table grapes. I used mainly muscat grapes.

This is a simple dish to prepare, particularly if you have a breadmaking machine. Just dump the dough ingredients in the machine in the order recommended by the machine’s manufacturer and operate on manual, taking the dough out when it has risen the first time and the machine stops. If you prefer to do the kneading by hand, those instructions are in the recipe.

If you’re planning an Easter brunch, this would make an ideal accompaniment.

Schiacciata con l’uva

2 3/4 cups bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons dried yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with the sugar. Put the sifted flour and salt into a large bowl, make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture and the olive oil. Knead until smooth for about 10 minutes then place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place until the dough doubles in size.

Now, whichever dough making technique you use, punch down the dough and cut it in half. Roll out one piece and use it to line a greased and floured rectangular baking pan. Let some of the dough hang outside the pan.

For the filling mix together:

3 cups of purple grapes, picked from the stalks, washed and patted dry
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon very finely chopped rosemary

Sprinkle over the dough. Roll out the remaining dough and cover the filling, folding over the edges of the bottom layer of dough. Now finish the top of the pie with:

1 cup washed and dried grapes
3 tablespoons coarse sugar
a drizzle of olive oil

Press the grapes into the dough then sprinkle with the sugar and oil. Set aside for 10 minutes then bake in a pre-heated 200C oven for approximately 45 minutes. Serve at room temperature. A dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream is a good idea.

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