One night in culinary school, Chef Peter handed me his recipe for casatiello and asked if I'd like to make it. Why yes. He procured some wonderful andouille that I used, along with great big chunks of provolone. He even got me a paper grocery bag in which to bake it, which was great fun. His recipe eventually found its way to The Bread Baker's Apprentice, where he describes it as "a rich, dreamy Italian elaboration of brioche." It's certainly that. The lusty version I remember making that night contained significantly more meat and cheese than his present one, and since the memory of its beauty and its flavor are so vivid, I'm going to hew to that. I'm also going to reduce the egg, and use olive oil instead of butter with a bow to the flavors in the capicola and provolone. And since I'll need to sauté the capicola in order to render some of its fat, and since I also have sage in need of a trim, I'm going to fry some leaves in the rendered fat and add them to the dough as well.
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<br />The recipe begins with a sponge which grows a great big yeast population in about an hour. Casatiello contains a lot of heavy ingredients, and using a sponge gives the dough a good boost and makes its rising time, which is still somewhat considerable, more reasonable.
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<br />And I'm going to bake it in a paper grocery bag.

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