Pizzi, my favourite souther-Italian-style bread.

Today I have a recipe from an amazing land I have lived in for almost three years. This place is called Apuglia, and it is located in the deep south of Italy. Apuglia is one of those places in the world where you can notice the riches of  a blend of cultures that have populated this area since ancient times. It is a magic place and when you live there, sometimes you have the feeling of travelling back in time, in the best sense of the word. 

I have incredible memories from the period I lived in "The boot's heel", it is the mother-land of some good friends of mine and I took many influences from it's traditional cooking in exchange of a piece of my heart. I  learnt a great deal about food when I lived in Lecce and I will share one little treasure with you today. You can notice Italian's good taste through the traditional food, it is just so genuine, rich and tasty but in many cases not suitable for wheat/gluten avoiders. 

The "Little treasure" I am going to share with you is a kind of bread called Pizzi. When it comes about bread, I have to say that this is one of my favourite recipes. It is easy to make and taste so delicious. You will probably find this kind bread only in this part of the world and you have a few versions of it, depending on the village or the bakery.

Ingredients:

-Wholegrain wheat flour 500gr
-Water
-Cherry tomato 100gr
- One zucchini
- One onion
- A handful of black olives (preferably with the "stone")
- Four table spoon of olive oil 
-Half a cube of fresh yeast
- Four teaspoon of  sea salt

Process:

In a bowl, mix and dissolve the yeast with some warm water, the oil and the salt. 
Chopped the onion, zucchini and cut the cherry on half. Add this vegetables and the olives to the mix and start adding flour to make a dough, using a wooden spoon or your hands kneading the mix until it takes a solid and elastic consistence.

Leave the dough in the bowl and cover it with a cloth for at least three or four hours until it rises. 

Turn on the oven 180ºC and preheat for ten minutes.

Make fist-size buns and place them in a oven tray with baking paper on the bottom. Bake them for 30-35 mins.

Buon appetito!