Azmom: Nina: Here is a little History of the Tiella. I have a Photo Tuttorial saved somewhere. I'll put that in too. Lou June 29, 2006 Tiella Gaeta: From time to time I get e-mails from Americans (and I mean Argentineans as well as US Americans) asking for some particular Italian recipe their grandmother used to make. I am happy to help whenever I can, I love those trips down memory lane, but occasionally I feel terribly sorry for not being able to lend my hand in their recipe search. Sometimes it is because, while I know the dish well, I have no idea of how the recipe looks like. Yet more often, I simply have no idea what dish they are talking about: the name might be familiar, but the description of the dish is not. The problem is that Italy simply does not have a national cuisine, but rather a collection of local ones that at times can change dramatically just going over the next hill. So, even for a born and raised Italian like me,m Italy remains an immense cooking school, with a promise of something new around the next road bend. . I was reading William Black's "Al Dente", a very well written and enjoyable book about Italian food and history, and stumbled upon his description of Tiella Gaeta, the stuffed "bread" typical of Gaeta . Now, I spent many of my childhood summer holidays in the area near Gaeta, so I had heard the name before, but I must admit I had no idea what the dish was. Black describes food in such a delicious way something he definitely has a knack for that I knew I had to get a bite of tiella as soon as I could. I also wanted to learn more about it. I did not manage to find much about the history of this dish, but to me tiella symbolises the perfect union of love for food, local ingredients and a practical take to eating. According to some sources tiella was the fare of the local mariners: simple to eat yet delicious. Tiella is essentially two disks of bread dough, brushed with plenty of oil, stuffed with a moderate amount of simple ingredients, sealed and baked. You can find similar items throughout many countries whose eating culture is centred on wheat, but tiella Gaetana has a couple of peculiarities that make it unique. First of all, the border sealing the two disks of dough is always wavy like the sea. The dough itself is made without oil, yet the bottom and top of the "bread" should be brushed abundantly with extra virgin olive oil. Finally the stuffing, which has a few rules of its own. The most classic of tiellas is made with octopus, some gaeta olives, tomatoes, parsley and plenty of olive oil, but there are plenty of variations: escarole and olives, escaroles and bacclà (salted cod), anchovies, tiny calamaretti and zucchini and cheese (sheep) are just a few. The purist say that once you cut the tiella into quarters and bite into it, there should be so much oil in the filling that it runs down your forearms. I don't find that particularly appetising, to be completely honest. Traditional recipes can be good, but sometimes there is a reason why evolution is better. On the other hand, I completely agree with the keepers of the Gaetan tradition when they claim that tiella should only be paired with wine, never water. A nice cool wine from Lazio or Campania goes down a treat with it. For my taste of tiella, I followed Black's tip and went to Chinappi a tiny and somewhat hidden bakery that specialises in Tiella. It was a difficult choice, but the first go had to be tiella with octopus, which was simply delicious. The oily dough was a delectable container for the filling of sweet tomatoes, firm (but not hard octopus, rich of sea aromas, and the occasional slightly bitter punch of the olive.

Way late follow-up and no pictures :( Our house was broken into and the only thing the thieves took was our 7 year old digital camera. They broke a storm door, the exterior door, the jamb and some trim. Mighty impressive that someone would go through all that trouble for a old camera. Unfortunately for them, the rechargeable batteries are likely worth more than the camera. The repairs are surprising expensive but just below our deductible - so no new camera for me for a while. Leaving the parchment paper works fine and was easy to manage. The loaves stayed stable pretty well and I got a nice final rise in the oven off the hot stone. I'll try the rice flour thing after I find a $9 peel!

Stacy, you gave me a grin! Yes, you're absolutely right about having a hand in that recipe. I remember that fire vividly! ;) You know, one of things I do after I've tried a recipe and like it is make extensive notes. If the recipe turns out well, I always want to be able to make it exactly the same way. Rewriting recipes is something I do to most of those I make repeatedly...I've noticed there are a lot of recipes out there that are poorly written, or don't give very good instruction. My thinking is...when my thinking goes...I want to be able to make it again. I usually make personal notes as well, like which pans I use to make the sauce, cook the pork, etc., just so I don't have to think about it. That's probably a little excessive to some, but it really helps me when I'm getting prepared. You both have no idea how happy it makes me you use my ''instructions''. I don't always feel like I have much to contribute to the Cooking Forum (too many good cooks here), so it's very nice to know the combination works for you. Pizza making wasn't easy for me initially, so figuring something like this out was a big deal at the time. Considering how easy it is now for me to make pizza, it was worth writing all the steps down!

I bought a round baking stone at Wal Mart for $10, and it works great - just as good as the really expensive and much heavier one from Pampered Chef. I have two - I put them on the lower and middle racks to preheat at 500F for about 30 minutes while I get toppings together and they're good to go. FOAS - I was the OP of the dough recipe that Teresa shared, and it's the best dough I've ever made, and certainly the easiest - other than the having to plan ahead factor which I find challenging sometimes. I made that same dough last week and also forgot the wax paper over the top, but I had covered the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and hooked a large rubber band around it to hold the moisture in. When I went to give it a turn in the bowl it also had a dry-ish crust on the top - I was sharing the dough with a friend and after I divided it I kneaded each portion a few times and shaped them into balls. The dough baked up perfectly that night, so I don't think the dry crust had any negative effect. The salt however, might have been a different story... The other thing I wanted to share is that this dough is pretty forgiving as far as the timing goes - I turned, kneaded and divided it about 6 hours before baking, and it was gorgeous when I took it out of the bowl, and it behaved beautifully. It was so relaxed I was able to shape it for the most part just by pulling and stretching and I just used a rolling pin for a couple of passes to even out the thickness. I'm glad you were successful in the end - just thought I'd throw my two cents worth in :-) Becky