Tricolor Vegetable Pâté and Whole Wheat Bread for The Daring Cooks Challenge

Tricolor Vegetable Pâté

Line your pan with plastic wrap, overlapping sides.

For white bean layer:
Mash beans in large bowl. Add lemon juice, olive oil, oregano and garlic and blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread bean mixture evenly on bottom of prepared pan.

For red pepper layer:
If you are roasting a fresh pepper, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. With your hands, grease the skin of the pepper with olive oil. Place pepper on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven. Check the pepper every 10 to 15 minutes and turn over as it starts to darken and blister. You want the pepper to be blistered all over. This should take a total of 30 to 40 minutes. (Alternatively, you can broil the pepper in the oven or cook it on the grill or in a grill pan.) Once the pepper is blistered all over, place in a sealed plastic bag for 15 minutes, until cool enough to handle. Remove the core and seeds, peel off the skin and chop the pepper.

Combine peppers and feta in a food processor and blend until smooth. Spread pepper mixture evenly over bean layer in prepared dish.

For pesto layer:
Mince garlic in a food processor. Add basil, parsley and pine nuts and mince. With machine running, gradually add oil through feed tube and process until smooth. Mix in ricotta. Spread pesto evenly over red pepper layer.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. * If you freeze the pâté 30 minutes prior to serving, it will be firmer when you unmold it and easier to slice.

To unmold, invert pâté onto serving platter. Peel off plastic wrap from pâté. Garnish with herb sprigs and serve with a French baguette or sourdough bread.

No-Knead 100% Whole Wheat Bread

1. Heavily grease an 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan. This loaf tends to stick, so be sure to grease the pan thoroughly with non-stick vegetable oil spray (I used unsalted butter).

2. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Beat the mixture vigorously for about 3 minutes; an electric mixer set on high speed works well here (you will need a heavy duty mixer for this). You should have a very sticky dough. It won’t be pourable, but neither will it be kneadable (it will be very sticky!). Scoop it into the prepared pan.

3. Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes; it should just about rise to the rim of the pan, perhaps just barely cresting over the rim. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.

4. Uncover the bread, and bake it for about 40 to 45 minutes, tenting it with aluminum foil after 20 minutes (the directions on the bag only said to bake the bread for 30 to 35 minutes, tenting after 15 minutes. I think that timing is more accurate, based on my experience and allowing for the adjustments). The bread is done when it’s golden brown on top, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers between 190°F and 195°F. Remove it from the oven, and after 5 minutes turn it out onto a rack. Brush with melted butter, if desired; this will keep the crust soft. Cool the bread completely before cutting it.