Italicious

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

• 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
• ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
• 1¼ teaspoons salt (I would recommend trying only a teaspoon, it was very salty, though maybe that was why it was so good!)
• Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed. (this is important, I used flour and had a lot of sticky dough leftover)

In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water (strange measurement, it is a smidgen more than 1 and a half cups), and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18 (go with the higher number of hours), at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball (the dough is not easy to handle, like soft flesh, not easy to form into a ball, so if your ball is limp, don’t fret!). Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.