Description
This quick bread, full of summer flavours, is easy to make and won't last long. You could use pre-made dough from the shop to make this even quicker.
Ingredients
For the courgette and garden herb pesto:
- 200g courgette, coarsely grated
- 30g pine nuts or walnuts
- 20g golden linseeds (flaxseed)
- 30g Parmesan cheese, grated
- 30g spinach
- 30g extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- 40g mixed herbs such as mint, lemon thyme, parsley, basil, oregano
- Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- juice of one lemon
For the bread dough:
- 400g strong bread flour
- 20g fresh yeast or 7g dried yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 200g water
- 40g extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp chopped rosemary
- 100g soft goats cheese
- 100g courgette and garden herb pesto
Instructions
- Start with the dough, if you are making your own: Weigh the flour, rosemary, yeast and salt directly into a food processor and blend for 30 seconds
- Add the oil and water, blend for another 30 seconds
- Scrape the sides down, and continue to pulse for up to 1 minute 30 seconds until the dough comes together.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and neatly and glenty fold the dough into a ball to form a smooth top, place into a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean dry tea towel and let the dough prove to double in size. Should take about 40 minutes to 1 hour.
- While the dough is rising, make the pesto: Heat a non-stick frying pan and saute the onions, garlic and seasoning in 2tbs of the oil until golden about 4 -5 minutes. Add the courgettes and saute for one minute. Let the mixture cool.
- Toast the linseeds and nuts and add to the sauteed onion and courgette mixture, cool.
- Place the herbs, spinach, lemon juice, Parmesan and remaining oil in the food processor and blend until still coarse.
- Add the herb mixture to the cooled sauteed onion, courgette and nut mixture. Adjust the seasoning if needed and let the flavours develop for about 20 minutes.
- Continue when your dough is ready: Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a 7"(18cm) OR 8"(20cm) spring form tin and lightly dust with flour.
- Carefully turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and flatten using your fingers tips or very lightly roll with a rolling pin into a rectangle about 1.5cm thick.
- Spread the pesto and sprinkle the goats cheese, roll the dough into a spiral and cut into 6. Place the spirals in the prepared tin, bake for 55 minutes. Let the bread cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin, brush the top with olive oil and serve.
Notes
Place the leftover pesto in a clean jar and cover the surface with extra oil and keep refrigerated, it should last for up to one week.