Flower and herb Carta di Musica (Sardinian Crisp Bread)
This summer my rooftop garden has an abundance of herbs and flowers and I am incorporating them into my food every way I can. I have already pressed them into sheets of pasta and now a similar treatment with this special bread crisps.
Carta di Musica means music sheets in Italian. It describes a Sardinian crisp bread rolled so transparent that you could read music sheets through it. I am sure they mean opera music, knowing how Italians love their opera.
I used my basic crisp bread dough that combines flour and cornmeal, rolled it thinly in the pasta attachment of the Kitchenaid stand mixer, pressed the flowers and leaves into the sheets, toped with another sheets and rolled again to embed them into the dough. If you don’t have a Kitchenaid you can use any other pasta making machine or even roll it out by hand with a pastry roller.
Once you press the leaves into the dough, dial the pasta roller back a couple of notches and roll until you reach the desired thinness. Don’t over roll or the flowers and leaves will stretch too much.
Have fun with it.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup fine cornmeal
3/4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
A handful of edible flowers, leaves and herbs (nasturtiums, thyme, sage, callendula, chive blossoms, whatever you have access to).
Olive oil for brushing
Additional coarse salt for sprinkling (Maldon or fleur de sel)
Directions:
Combine flour, water and salt in a bread mixer and knead for 7 minutes until dough is elastic. Remove from mixer, place in a bowl, cover and let rest about 20 minutes to relax the gluten.
Line two baking sheets with silpat liners or foil.
Divide dough into 4 pieces and work with one piece at a time.
Set up a pasta machine for rolling sheets of pasta.
Sprinkle the work surface with flour, pat ball of dough in the flour so it is not sticky.
Roll the dough on the thickest setting first, much like you would when making pasta.
Keep rolling at thinner setting until the dough is see through and fine.
Lay the sheet of dough on the floured surface.
Scatter flowers and leaves over half the dough, then fold the remainder of the dough over the flowers.
Pat with your hand without pressing too hard.
Dial the pasta setting back a couple of notches and roll the dough again to press the flowers between the sheets of dough.
Roll it to desired thickness, being careful not to roll it too much as this will stretch the leaves and flowers pressed inside the dough.
When done, cut into strips that fit your baking tray.
Finish with remaining dough pieces. If you get tired of it you can just roll the remaining dough and then sprinkle chopped herbs and salt on each sheet before baking.
Before baking brush a little olive oil on each ribbon of flowered dough and sprinkle with salt.
Bake the crisps in a 425℉ oven until crisps begin to brown in spots.
Remove from oven and let cool on a rack.
Serve with dips, soups etc.
Enjoy.
Lay flowers and herbs over a sheet of bread dough.
Cover with a second sheet and press lightly, then roll in pasta attachment to press the flowers into the dough.
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