Take Me To Post Comment Form We got home a little while ago from the annual Barton Community College Foundation auction. Many moons ago, I benefited from the scholarship program up on the hill, so I try to give a little something back when I can. The theme this year was "A Night in Napa" and the table decorations, meal and quite a few of the auction items leaned toward wine country. So, here I am again - back in Italian mode.

Now, along with the meal of pastas and sauces, veggies and salad, there were bread sticks - bread sticks that were slightly sweet and soft and looked like baby French-style baguettes. My personal preference, however, is for something called Grissini, which are long, crisp sticks made from a simple yeast dough and seasoned to fit whatever is being served. For me, these things are positively addictive and I'm still working on perfecting my technique.

In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup of warm water, 1 package of active dry yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour. Now, go off and do something else for 10 minutes (blog, for instance) and let this yeasty glop start bubbling.

When you come back, stir into the yeasty glop another 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a teaspoon of sea or kosher salt. You can also add some flavorings at this point -- rosemary, garlic, pepper, whatever.

Here's where you get some exercise - knead the dough until it's "smooth and elastic". Five minutes will usually do it, depending upon how firm and enthusiastic you are about kneading yeast dough. Once it's ready or you're tired, clean out the bowl and oil the bowl with a little olive oil. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm place to rise for an hour (you can go blog again, if you like).

Assuming all went well with the rising, dump the dough out on a floured surface and divide it into four pieces. Now, this is where we can stick to the original instructions or we can do a little innovating. The traditional method is to take each of those four pieces of dough and roll them out into 4 x 12 inch rectangles. Then we are supposed to cut them lengthwise into strips about 1/3 of an inch wide. This, by the way, is a pain in the caboose. So ...

The non-traditional method is to flatten those pieces of dough out on the floured surface and then grab our handy-dandy pasta machine or noodle cutter. Pick the appropriate setting to get long strips of dough cut approximately 1/3 or an inch wide and go for it.

Once we've got our strips, fold a strip in half and twist it, lay it on a baking sheet that has been either greased with olive oil or covered with parchment paper. If you like, sprinkle them with salt or garlic salt or whatever tickles your fancy. Let them rise for about half an hour, while you are pre-heating the oven to 400 degrees.

Bake the Grissini in batches on the top shelf of the oven for about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, so that they will be crispy and lightly browned.

Assuming that, unlike me, we are not making pigs of ourselves and eating them as fast as they come out of the oven, they can be stored in a sealed container or plastic bags to keep their crispness.