Tell me now, is there anything better than dipping freshly baked bread into a plate of olive oil, salt and pepper? I can’t quite remember when I was first introduced to this delightful Italian custom, as it makes so much sense it seems I’ve known about it all along. It may have been early in my relationship with my husband, who spent a year working in Italy after graduating from college. Whenever it was, it seemed that the practice caught on quickly and was now being offered in anything even remotely resembling an Italian restaurant. Slathering your rolls in butter was suddenly passe.
For the most part, this practice is off-limits to me now. Italian restaurants as a whole are difficult, since they don’t offer too many low carb options. The temptation of the crusty italian bread with a plate of dipping oil is almost too much to bear. But once again, I send up thanks for the invention of some low carb flours. When deciding on an easy dinner of frittata the other evening, I knew we needed something a little “bready” to round it out. We have a number of fresh herbs growing on our windowsill and several olive oil/rosemary recipes have caught my eye of late. I wasn’t about to complicate matters with a fancy yeast bread, because the whole point of having frittata for dinner is the ease of it. So quick bread was just the thing and, as always, the power of the internet saved me. I simply typed in “rosemary quick bread” and had a number of recipes at my fingertips.
I chose this one, as it seemed readily adaptable to my low carb flour collection. I left out the olives, as neither my kids nor my husband like them. I also upped the amount of fresh rosemary, because I wanted it to really stand out. I contemplated adding some roasted garlic, but decided against it because I didn’t want to add another step and I really did just want to highlight the flavour of the rosemary.
The Results: Quick bread really is a wonderful thing, because you can decide to make it at almost the last moment, and have a delicious product in under an hour. This was so easy, and went perfectly with our frittata. I served it that evening with butter, and it was good enough, but the next day it occured to me that I should have served it with dipping oil. So I had a few pieces that way and it was wonderful! The evergreen flavour of the rosemary really came through and the bread was just the right texture for sopping up lots of oil. I wouldn’t ever serve it again with butter, it’s just not that kind of bread. But it would be ideal for sopping up soup or pasta sauce too.
Rosemary Olive Oil Quick Bread adapted from Magnifico!
1 1/2 cups carbalose flour
1/2 cup almond meal/flour
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten (high gluten flour)
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup almond milk or whole milk
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Preheat oven to 325F and grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, rosemary and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and olive oil.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until top is light golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool in pan 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Serves 12. Each serving has a total of 7.6g of carbs and 3.75g of fiber.
