Sourdough Ciabatta

 It is such a simple looking bread: ciabatta, the Italian word for slipper. Maurizio Leo's recipe in The Perfect Loaf contains ciabatta's signature addition of olive oil in the dough, but it is also made with freshly milled Khorasan, aka Kamut, flour. Khorasan is a region of Iran; the flour is is golden in color.

The bread when it emerges from the oven has a thin, crackly crust and an open crumb. As toast for the next couple of days (Maurizio's recipe turns out four loaves) the rewarming intensifies its slightly nutty flavor, its external crunchiness, and internal chewiness.

My son Isaac is the King of Sandwich. He thought to slice the ciabatta along its equator, fill it with spicy barbecued, pulled chicken, and top it with homemade cole slaw (Isaac is also a Slaw Master.)