Pecorino Olive Breadsticks

I am thinking about the side dish for tonight’s dinner. There should be some kind of fish ratatouille and I want to make something spicy to go with it. Then I remember the book “Bread for Connoisseurs” by Richard Bertinet. There were also recipes with olives in it? That would fit then even to the olive blog event…

Yes, there it is, exactly what I was looking for. A kind of grissini, with olives, herbs and pecorino.

First I produce the basic dough from

• 540g flour
• 10g yeast
• 10g salt
• 350 ml of water

As always at the beginning rather sticky, but by Richard’s folding and throwing technique it becomes a wonderfully loose dough. For the breadsticks I need only half the amount, the second half I use later for baguettes.

Now I mix the filling

• 100g black olives with pit (equivalent to 80g without pit)
• 50g pecorino, grated
• 5g mixed dry herbs (I had rosemary, thyme, marjoram, bay leaf)
• 1 clove garlic, very finely chopped

The olives are Kalamata from the Münster market. I rarely have olives that pit so well. Usually this ends in a mushy mess, this time the halts can be easily removed from the pit.

Meanwhile the dough has risen enough, I make a rectangular plate of about 25*20cm and put the olive-herb mixture on it. Then fold in one third, press it down and put the second third on top and press it down as well. Now I have a dough packet of about 25*10 cm and cut strips of 2 cm width with the dough scraper perpendicular to the folded edge. They are crumbly inside from the cheese, which I counteract by first twisting the pieces inside. Now I can roll them out to tray depth by hand and place them on the baking paper on the tray. There I twist them again further. The 12 sticks just fit on the tray, there they go again briefly and then come 14 minutes in the oven at 250 °.

Very aromatic they turned out, I would probably add a little less salt to the dough next time. But to a tomato-based dish they fit certainly!

twisted thin breadsticks with olive pieces, pecorino, dried herbs very photorealistic, food magazine style, long lens, depth of field, blurred background, shot from material height, photo of the year, award-winning photo, embedded in restaurant scenery, well-lit, bright daylight, illuminated from camera