Pani Italiani

Today's Gourmet Club's cuisine is Italian and our responsibility is to provide a soup and bread. I picked up a couple of soup books at the library and Jfer is going to brew a mushroom soup this afternoon (she just called aghast that chanterelle mushrooms are like $50 a pound).

I, of course, am responsible for the bread. I have decided to make three different kinds (yes, that's definitely overkill, but once you've got the oven going, why stop?)

• My first bread are grissini, or thin dry bread sticks. We made these for our pumpkin carving party last year and they were a big hit. I'll make a total of 32 and my first batch just came out looking great. I'm using a Betty Bossi recipe from her bread book.
  
• My second bread is a classical white Italian bread. It's braided and decorated with sesame seeds. It's on its finally rising and will go into the over after the grissini are done. this is the first time I'm using the Italian Bread 101 recipe from King Arthur Flour.
  
• The final bread comes from this recipe and is supposed to be (similar to) the bread they serve at the Macaroni Grill. I even get to use fresh rosemary from the rosemary bush I got from Elizabeth (that poor plant will never be able to grow up).
  

BTW, as far as restaurant chains go, Macaroni Grill serves the best tasting Italian bread by far. Bread sticks that you get at most places (Olive Garden, Fresh Choice, etc.) are usually crap compared to this. The other great bread to die for is the focaccia they serve at EZ's.