Feta, Olive, Red Onion and Potato Bread with Rosemary

I love this bread. Along with Irish soda bread, its the first bread I ever made (I can’t quite remember which came first). It’s perfect for bread baking novices – there’s no yeast or kneading involved, just a swift mix and bake and then your whole house will small gorgeous and you’ll have a thing of both beauty and deliciousness in your posession.

This recipe is based on a Delia one, from How to Cook Book 1, which I picked up from a charity shop in my teenage years and found immensely useful. The beauty of this recipe is how easily customisable it is, the original has goats’ cheese, onion and potato, this version has feta and red onion instead, and you can tweak it to your hearts content. It’s absolutely perfect for a picnic or to take along to a dinner party – you’ve made bread! people will exclaim, thinking that you’re some kind of multitasking superhero, when in fact you know that it was the work of moments.

Makes one smallish loaf, to serve 4 people –

• 150g feta cheese, crumbled
• 15 black olives, chopped into quarters
• half a red onion, chopped chunkily and gently fried for a couple of minutes
• 1 medium potato, grated or very finely chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped rosemary, and more to garnish
• 1/2 tsp salt
• good grind of black pepper
• 200g self-raising flour
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp dijon or grain mustard

Preheat your oven to 190C/gas 5/375F and prepare a flat baking tray for your bread. Combine the cheese, olives, onion, potato and rosemary in a bowl with the flour and salt, and then mix your egg, milk and mustard together (in a mug or small bowl works well!). Add to the dry mixture and stir until it just comes together into a sticky but loose dough.

Tip out onto your tray (it’s fine if the mixture is a bit crumbly, just push together into a round loaf shape with your hands) and dust with flour before baking for 40-50 minutes – it’s done when it’s golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Needless to say – this bread tastes amazing when eaten while still warm with butter.

x Kerry