Mediterranean Olive Bread

Lay a clean kitchen towel on a cookie tray and dust liberally with cornmeal. Set aside with another towel beside it. You will also need a large Dutch oven or heavy ceramic pot with a lid.

Combine the flour, yeast and salt together in a large bowl. Add the warm water and gently mix together with your hand until the dough starts to come together.

Take the dough out of the bowl and knead very gently into a ball shape.

Coat the same bowl with the olive oil and return the dough into the center of it. Cover and seal well with a sheet of plastic wrap. Let it sit until it doubles in size.

Once it has risen, take dough out of the bowl and lay it on your work surface. Roughly press the dough into a flat circle and sprinkle about half of the olives on top. Fold the dough over on itself, hiding the olives and press down again to form a flat shape. Lay the rest of the olives onto the dough and fold dough over again, this time forming another ball shape.

Lay the dough onto the cornmeal dusted towel, seam side down. Dust the top of the dough with some extra cornmeal and cover with the second towel. Let dough rest until it’s almost doubled in size again. Watch it closely and when you see that it’s almost ready, preheat your oven to 450 F and place the empty pot into it.

When the oven has reached its temperature, take off the top towel and using a sharp serrated knife, cut two slits across the top of the dough.

Take the pot out of the oven and very carefully lift dough off of the towel and drop it into the pot. Place the lid on and put it back into the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take the lid off of the pot and bake for a further 20-30 minutes, or until the crust is golden and crispy. Remove from oven and set pot on a rack. Let bread cool before slicing.

Adapted from Jim Lahey.