Michetta

A Milanese roll built to be hollow, from a stiff overnight starter.

Not vegetarian — contains lard.

Ingredients

• 150 g strong flour, 75 ml water and 2 g yeast, for the biga
• 450 g strong white flour
• 230 ml water
• 5 g yeast
• 20 g lard
• 1 teaspoon malt extract
• 12 g salt

Method

1. Make the biga the night before: a stiff, barely mixed dough of flour, water and the 2 g of yeast, left 16 hours at cool room temperature. It should smell sharply of alcohol.
2. Mix the biga with the rest of the flour, water, yeast, malt, lard and salt, and knead to a firm dough. Firmer than feels right: a slack dough cannot hold a hollow.
3. Rest 30 minutes, then divide and roll tight balls.
4. PRESS EACH BALL WITH A ROSETTE STAMP, or score five deep radial cuts almost to the base, and turn them UPSIDE DOWN to prove on floured cloth.
5. Prove 90 minutes inverted. Proving them upside down is what makes the crust set while the inside pulls away.
6. Turn them right side up onto a hot tray and bake at 230C with steam for 20 minutes.
7. THEY SHOULD BE ALMOST EMPTY INSIDE. The hollow is the point of the roll, not a fault — Milan splits them and fills them, and a dense crumb would make that impossible.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes