An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace

by Tamar Adler

Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour and more for dusting 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast 11/4 teaspoons salt 15/8 cups water cornmeal In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and stir until blended; the dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest for 18 hours at warm room temperature, around 70 degrees. (How pleasant!) When the dough’s surface has begun to bubble, lightly flour a big cutting board and place the dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it in on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave it there for 15 minutes. Using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape the dough into a ball. Generously coat a smooth towel with flour and cornmeal. Put the dough, seam side down, on the towel and dust with more flour. Cover with another smooth towel and let rise for about 2 hours. It should more than double in size and not spring back when poked with a finger. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy cast-iron, enamel, Pyrex, or ceramic pot with a lid (I use my heavy Le Creuset Dutch oven) in the oven as it heats. After 30 minutes, carefully remove the pot from the oven. Slide your hand under the loaf on the towel and turn the dough over into the pot, seam side up. Don’t worry about its appearance. Shake the pan once or twice to distribute the dough; the rest ...