Salt is amazing. We are wired to love it, and it is wired to not love us. Although salt isn’t very healthy, it is necessary (“necessary”) in small amounts to make bread taste good, and to make most things taste good. One of my preferred methods of salt intake is feta cheese, which is wonderfully creamy and crumbly and salty all at the same time. Also, its partner in many ingredients, olives. Technically a vegetable, so technically healthy. It has a pit. It grows.

Feta olive bread is something that I’ve seen a few times in different places and it always looks beautiful and amazing and makes me drool. The olives have this adorable ringlet pattern when you cut into the bread and it makes it look very artistic and special even though it’s actually just plain old bread that somebody mooshed olives and feta into. But I tried making it! And I didn’t do any mooshing, because it turns out olives are more fragile than you’d imagine. The bread turned out salty and moist and was overall very delicious as just plain toast or with a little butter.

Mixing together the core ingredients: flour, olives, and feta.

Stirring in the olives and feta and adding yeast.

After baking at 400ºF for 25 minutes.

Olive Fets Rustic Loaf:

1. Combine 4 cups flour + ~1 cup pitted olives + ~1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles. Stir to combine.
2. Add 2.5 tsp yeast + 1.5 cups water (or more if needed) and stir to combine until the dough is sticky and not crumbly.
3. Cover and let sit 2-3 hours.
4. Lay out on a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes at 400ºF or until brown.