The Best Sandwich Bread, Italian Stecca

How did I make it this far in life without knowing about this bread? Italian stecca (stick).  I will be making this all the time now. I found this a couple days ago on a Polish blog.
It is so simple to make and no kneading involved.  It needs to sit for 24 hours so you must plan ahead.  Pour 3 C. of water into a large bowl.  Add 1 tsp. salt, 1-1/2 tsp. sugar and 1/2 tsp. rapid rise yeast.  Mix in 6 C. bread flour then cover it and let it sit at room temp for 24 hours.

The next day, it will look like this.  It is very sticky.

Spread out a kitchen towel and cover it generously with flour.  This flour will not be mixed into the dough.  It just keeps it from sticking. Dump the dough on the towel and slightly deflate it.

Make sure the dough is covered with flour then fold the towel gently over the dough and set it aside to rise again for 2 hours.

Here it is after 2 hours.  Sprinkle a piece of parchment paper with flour.

Cut the dough into pieces about this size.

Stretch these pieces into baguette shapes.  These will look very rustic.  Spread them with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.

Let them rise until doubled, about 30-45 minutes.

Bake them at 500  degrees for about 25 minutes until they start to turn golden.  Place them on racks to cool.

Look at this crumb!

I had made Caesar salads the day before and had leftover dressing so I tossed some lettuce with the dressing and filled the bread with it.

I added some grilled chicken too.

I can not image a better bread for a sandwich.  Stecca is like a ciabatta baguette.  It is light and chewy with a great yeast flavor.

Comments

Anonymous said…
yum yum yum, bread is my favorite food (sadly), this sounds amazing, I made something like this once but I will now reinforce to flour it well, lets just say my bread cost me a towel, what a mess!
That said this bread sounds and looks amazing and the sandwich you made is wonderful, Christer will love this, you know how he likes his sandwiches, lol,too bad you couldn't send him some!
brokenteepee said…
Interesting. I'll have to give it a try.
Like a ciabatta baguette? Heavenly!
Anonymous said…
Looks easy enough and as You say it's perfect for sandwiches, Laurie is right and I'll try this soon :-)

I can see myself filling it with lots of goodies :-) something I love to do with ciabatta :-)
Have a great day!
Christer.
Guillaume said…
Reminds me of the baguette that Italian guy once made me:

http://vraiefiction.blogspot.ca/2013/08/pollo-alla-milanese-sandwich.html
Jim said…
What are you doing to me!? lol
This looks divine! I can smell it now wafting through the house.......thanks.
TARYTERRE said…
I LOVE bread of all kinds. This look tasty indeed.
1st Man said…
Yum.my. That looks wonderful, I might just have to put in a request to 2nd Man to make this bread (since he's the baker in the family, ha). Thanks for sharing!!
Robin Larkspur said…
This looks simple to do. Must try. Thinking about a chicken sandwich like this is making my stomach rumble!
luckybunny said…
Looks delicious, I'll have to try this one.
A delicious looking sandwich!! I have never known a more talented lady when it comes to cooking and putting things together. Yeah..I know I've probably said that before..but every now and then it hits me how fantastically you do things! You know?? :)
Looks delicious! I've never made bread, other than banana etc. I should try this, it seems straight forward! Have a good one!
Coach Z said…
Hello Again!

How yumilicious! I can't wait to try it!

Mario