Nomsies Kitchen : Sundried Tomatoes & Mozzarella Bread

This bread has a delicious Mediterranean taste of sundried tomatoes and herbs. It is just as tasty eaten on its own or with some soup.

Sundried Tomatoes & Mozzarella Bread Recipe from Nomsies Kitchen

Hello everyone! How was your weekend? I hope you had a great weekend and that you are all ready to start this week with vigour.

As for me, I ran for nearly 3 hours on Sunday. This is all part of my training for the Berlin Marathon. Even though I have been doing that for most Sundays now, yesterday was a real ordeal. I think I was not looking forward to the run and was mentally defeated before I even began. Never mind, I am sure this Sunday’s run will be better.

For Meatless Monday today I baked this ultra delicious sundried tomatoes and mozzarella bread. It’s not quite as thin as a flat bread and it has a crumb structure is similar to a focaccia’s, that is, light and airy. I had some sun dried tomatoes and a little bit of mozzarella left over from a previous pizza-making session so it was only logical to put them both together. You can always use store bought sundried tomatoes but if you want a fool-proof and simple recipe you can use my Oven Roasted Sun Dried Tomatoes recipe. It is guaranteed to make your house smell heavenly.

I always like to advocate getting a few key basic foundation recipes that you can always count on. It makes it so easy for you to then use that recipe to experiment and add any combination of ingredients that you like. This bread recipe is definitely one of those foundation recipes that you should have. It’s a very basic recipe for bread. In this particular recipe, I have used a ratio of 50:50 wholemeal to strong white flour here. If you do not like wholemeal flour, you can make this bread with just strong white flour. You should also note that I stretched out the dough here to make a sort of flat bread, however, if you want to shape the dough into a boule or loaf, you can go ahead and do that.

Now, I am going to have this bread for a delicious lunch as well as with some soup for dinner.

Recipe for Sundried Tomatoes and Mozzarella Bread

Prep Time: 3 hours / Baking Time: 20 minutes / Makes 2

Ingredients

250gm Strong White Flour

250gm Wholemeal Flour

10gm Salt

10gm Yeast

380ml Water

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

10 Sundried Tomatoes (halved)

80gm Grated Mozzarella Cheese

½ tsp Dried Basil

½ tsp Dried Oregano

Semolina for dusting

Method

1. Oil a square container (to prove the dough in – use a square container as it makes it easier for you to shape the dough into rectangles later). In a separate bowl, add all the flour. Add the salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other (do this as the salt will kill the yeast). With one hand, slowly pour in the water while you use your other hand to start mixing the dough. Once the water has been incorporated, mix until you get a rough dough. Add in the olive oil and continue mixing.

2. Turn the rough dough out onto a lightly floured surface and start kneading for about 15-20 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Place the dough into the square container that you have oiled and leave to rise until at least doubled in size (between 1-2 hours).

3. Line two baking trays with some parchment paper. Once the dough has risen, carefully tip it out onto a lightly floured surface. Be gentle with the dough while you are removing it from the container, you want to preserve all the air that is trapped within the dough. Once the dough is on the floured surface, do not knock it back, instead, lightly coat the dough with some flour and semolina and then cut the dough into half.

4. Gently stretch out each piece of dough into a rectangle and lay each half onto the prepared baking trays. Push the sundried tomato halves into the surface of the dough. Sprinkle the grated mozzarella cheese as well as the dried oregano and basil on top of the dough. Leave the dough to rest for a further 20 minutes. Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 220°C. Bake for 20 minutes and serve warm. To reheat cold bread, just reheat in a 220°C oven for 5 minutes.