anna genoese

Tonight's supper is matzo ball soup and fresh bread. I make matzo ball soup about once a month in the winter (twice in months with holidays!). For those who don't know, matzo balls are sort of like dumplings, but instead of using regular flour, we use matzo meal, which is flour made from crushed matzo -- unleavened bread. It usually has the texture of medium grind stone-ground cornmeal when it is dry, although there are many different options, including a "cake flour" made from matzo.

Apparently one can use matzo meal to do things like bread meats or in place of flour in potato pancakes. I've only ever used it for matzo balls, though, because my family doesn't keep kosher. This means that during Passover, when Jews are not supposed to eat leavened breads or several other foods, matzo products are supposed to sub in for leavened bread products, but my family doesn't stick to that, and so you'll sometimes find us eating challah (and soy and rice and other "forbidden" foods) during the ten days of Passover. Oh well!

Matzo balls can be made in many different ways. I like mine to be slightly heavier, but I'm including a way to make them much lighter for those who prefer them fluffy.

I also have to say that the best matzo ball soup I ever had was made by an old roommate of mine who was as goyish (non-Jewish) as they come! So if you're worried that you can't make good matzo ball soup because you aren't Jewish, put that thought out of your head! I guarantee you, there is no magical Jewish matzo ball dust required for delicious soup.

( Matzo Ball Soup )

I like to serve my matzo ball soup with this no-knead bread. I tend to mix the bread dough up in the morning, and let it rise for a long time, because my family likes a more sourdough flavor. (Today, for example, I mixed up the dough at 5:45 am, put it on the pan for the second rise around 1:15 pm, and then baked the bread around 2 pm.)

Here is a picture of what my bread looked like when I pulled it out of the oven after 35 minutes.

Here's a picture of the delicious inside of the bread.

I've made this bread a lot of different ways. My best tips:

• Use 7 cups of flour instead of 6-1/2 if you live in a damp environment (which I do)
  
• Don't sub in more than 3 cups of whole wheat flour
  
• Always use kosher or otherwise coarse salt; if using regular table salt, cut the amount of salt in half
  
• Instead of using a knife to slash the loaf, use a scissor to snip it. I don't form the dough into separate loaves, but instead usually leave all the dough in one lump. Then I cut 4 - 5 Xs with my kitchen shears. I have found this works much better than slashing with a knife, and lets my dough rise and bake higher.
  
• Let the bread rise its full amount the second time. The recipe says you can put it in the oven after 20 minutes, but I do not recommend that; the loaf baked up pretty flat when I did that.
  
• Use 2 cups of water in a pan on the bottom of the oven -- if you only use one, and your bread needs more than 30 minutes, you'll run out of water before the bread is finished cooking.

Happy cooking!