Ciabatta - Fix a starter of 1 cup flour, 2/3 cup water and a pinch of yeast and chill for 12 hours. It will become turn bubbly and spounge-ish.  To begin making Christmas dough, add 2 cups flour, 1.5 teaspoons of salt, a measure of yeast in warm milk and about half a cup of water. For points, use a food processor to blend everything together. This sounds weird but works remarkably well! The processor makes every gluteney but if you don’t have one or enjoy being traditional: kneed, quarter turn, etc, until just prior to your arms falling off. Let rise for 90 minutes-ish. If you enjoy having larger bubbles in your bread, add a tablespoon of oil to the mixture. There were Experiments last night and we discovered this.

After rising, form two long, flat loaves. It shouldn’t need to be fooled with too much but punching it down helps. I also like to throw cornmeal on the tray before I transfer the loaves. Let rise for a slight bit more, then cook at 400′ F for 20 minutes.  You should get two well rounded ciabatta with a thin, golden crust and a fluffy interior.  Did you know ciabatta means ‘slippers’? I did not!

Vinaigrette- Add freshly pressed garlic, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, sugar, mustard and slight amounts of olive oil together. The consistency should be thick & syrupy. The secret is more sugar and less wet ingredients compared to one you’d make for a salad. I suggest making lots of this and keeping it about the house . By about the house, I really mean Securely in the Refrigerator.

Slice a loaf in two and drizze the vinaigrette on both sides, add lots of pepper, a little bit of salt and chopped basil. If it smells good, you’re doing it right! Add prosciutto, a soft mozzarella and if you both wish to be traditional and enjoy tomatoes, which I do not, slice & add one!

You now have a sandwich! You win! There’s a particular name for the vinaigrette, mozzarella, tomato & basil combination but it eludes be just now. Carefully piling the Tomato/mozzarella/basil together without bread or prosciutto will create a simple & elegant appetizer-salad thing.

Take:

• some hardboiled eggs (2)
• some bacon (3 strips, but then I ate some while I was making it)
• fresh basil, chopped (or chiffonaded, if you are me and obsessed with chiffonading basil, also think that ‘to chiffonade’ is a real verb)
• a good-sized spoonful of light mayo
• more black pepper than you think you need
• also I put in a little garlic, because I am incapable of making things without it.

Mix! Consume! Rejoice!

For bonus points, I am currently enamored of le Pain Quotidien, which is like Panera for New York: fancier, more Belgian, costs 1.5x as much, once you go there all other variations lose their appeal. So New York is not particularly Belgian, but otherwise. Specifically I am a fan of the way they plate their pretentious sandwiches open-faced on three pieces of bread. Why would anyone do this?? But it’s so good.

You’ll need:

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound sweet Italian turkey sausage **See below for notes on sausage
• 2 red bell peppers, sliced ** I used one red, one yellow for variety and colorfulness
• 2 yellow onions, sliced ** Only used half of one large yellow onion and it was plenty
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup Marsala wine
• 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional

Below is my own rendition of the instructions!

A note on sausages: I imagine you can use most kinds of sausages in this recipe, though I would advise trying turkey or chicken because I think the lighter taste helps really balance out all the other flavors in the dish. You can use raw or precooked – I used the aidells brand of precooked chicken sausages, sun-dried tomato flavor.  Ryan was raving about the aidells sausages, and I have to agree that they are very tasty.  If you use precooked sausages, I also recommend browning them in the pan for the first step anyway so you can use a bit of the grease that runs out of them to sautee the peppers and onions in.

First, heat some oil in a big skillet and cook the sausages over medium heat until browned. Drain out most of the grease, but leave in a bit for the veggies!

Throw in the chopped peppers and onions! I like to pump up the heat to medium-high initially to get a good saute going.  Salt and pepper them to taste, though don’t overdo it because there are many other savory and sweet flavors coming in later.

One the onions are looking translucent and a bit browned, throw in the chopped garlic, dried oregano, and basil. Revel in the sudden complexity of the smell! At this point I turned the heat back down to medium.

After a couple minutes, add the tomato paste and diced tomatoes (after draining them) and the marsala. Stir well, then simmer.

It might look something like this at this point:

Cut the sausages up – Giada recommends 1-inch cubes but I like to go smaller because my jaw is gimpy and I think it works better to have smaller bits when you put it in sandwich form. Throw the sausage into the pan, stir it around a bit, and let it simmer until the sauce is thickened (it says 20 minutes on the recipe but mine took about half that long).  As long as the marsala is cooked off and the sauce looks decently thick you’re good.

Now you have a couple choices when serving this dish  – we took a fresh white baguette and hollowed out the innards a little and just scooped the mixture into them to make subs. It was amazing.  You can also serve bread on the side or eat it straight – I would however definitely go with bread in some form because the taste is pretty intense.