It is the age of artisan breads. They are quite the rage among food bloggers all around the world. I too seem to have been bitten by the bug and want to badly to bake my own loaf, but more about that later. I scored a handsome, rustic ciabatta loaf at the organic farmer's market today. Yes the crust crackled and the yeasty loaf dusted with fresh organic flour was baked to perfection. Ciabatta [pronounced cha-BAT-ta] happens to be my favourite type of bread ever since I first had a chicken sandwich made using a mini version of this loaf at Deli France in Singapore. I love the shape, love the taste and don't even get me started on the texture..

I had been thinking about trying to assemble an antipasto platter for a while and this loaf was the perfect excuse to do so. When I got back home, I sawed off a few thick slices [ no perfect thin slices mind you, a loaf as rustic as this deserves to be eaten in a similar fashion ] and popped half of them in the oven after drizzling them with olive oil. The remaining half landed in a pan heating up slowly with a good dash of olive oil and a generous sprinkling of dukkah. I slowly pan roasted the bread making sure that the dukkah was nicely toasted and sticking to one side of the slice. The olive oil not only speckled the slice with nice bits of golden brown but also helped bring out the gorgeous aroma of the dukkah. While the slices were cooking, I thickly sliced some red capsicum and sent them to brown in the grill with a spray of canola oil. Taking multitasking to new heights [ I love this about assembling platters] I neatly diced some spring onion and chilli cream cheese and popped open a bottle of kalamatta olives. A trip to my backyard was fruitful in producing a handful of homegrown cherry tomatoes. Some seaweed crackers, carrot sticks and tatziki dip landed on the plate and I was good to go. The bread was pan toasted to perfection, the capsicum charred around the edges and heavenly. I also did another batch of pan toasted slices, this time with pizza sauce. Presto .... we had a delightful vegetarian antipasto for lunch.

The star of the show was the ciabatta and the stall I got it from belonged to Brasserie Bread. With a motto that says "honouring the traditions of artisan baking", Brasserie Bread specializes in sourdough organic baking and is the brainchild of Tony Papas of the Bayswater Brasserie fame in Sydney and Michael Klausen. Their fantastic range of sourdough breads is sheer delight and it is always a pleasure to shop at their stalls, chatting with their friendly staff.