Breaking Bread

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between French and Italian bread?
I never even thought about Italian bread until very recently when I saw it on a list of foods containing resistant starch.

Have you ever wondered why some of us often pick up a loaf of french bread when we are serving something like spaghetti for a meal?
I hadn't until I became aware of Italian bread. Now I do wonder, and I have no answer for that.

In any case, the difference between French and Italian bread is this:
In France, by law, bread cannot contain any oil or fat.
Whaaaaaaaat???? By law???
Huh! Super interesting!
Also, Italian bread is traditionally shorter and fatter than French loaves.
Ha.

I recently purchased the Kindle edition of "In Defense Of Food" because it was two bucks, and the title interested me.
I skipped a lot because it was mostly dry and boring writing, but it came down to this:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly from plants.
In other words, eat real food, not food-like manufactured edibles, in reasonable amounts, with plenty of plant based foods.
Alternately, eat like a Blue Zoner or a Mediterranean which is basically the same idea.
Just don't eat like an American. That will get you in trouble.

I wanted Italian bread, because bread, and resistant starch, but bread bought in a store...eh.
I decided to make some, using the first recipe from my google search.
As you can see, it turned out perfect and beautiful.
Hahahaha, no you can't, because my pictures would not attach. That also means that you can't see that I am totally lying...my batard was weird looking and not perfect. But it was delicious.

FYI: batard is the shape of the loaf, also known as torpedo. You learn something new every day.

Anyway, as I was enjoying this delicious homemade Italian bread, I started wondering WHY it contained resistant starch, when it is basically just a form of white bread.
I remembered that sourdough bread was also on that list of RS foods (as well as pumpernickel and rye) and so I delved a little more deeply into the subject of traditional Italian bread and GUESS WHAT??
Traditional Italian bread is made with a starter, called a biga, much like sourdough starter!!!
Boom!
I still don't know why that creates RS in white bread, but whatever.
Now I have to make more Italian bread the correct way, with a biga.
And I will just make a round loaf and not concern myself with a batard.
I will let you know how that goes.