Pesto Tomato Sourdough Bread

The flavor in this pesto sourdough bread is incredible. Sweet basil pesto permeates the loaf and fills your kitchen with the most wonderful smell. Oven-dried tomatoes dot this loaf of sourdough with their sweet and tart condensed tomato flavor. Add in the cheesy mozzarella and it was so hard to wait for this loaf to cool.I know you’re going to enjoy this pesto tomato sourdough bread.

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Why You’ll Love Pesto Tomato Sourdough Bread

• Summer Baking: This loaf of sourdough is perfect for summer because it uses fresh ingredients that are in season and go perfectly together.
• Iconic Loaf: The flavors in this loaf pair so well together, tasting like a caprese. It’s definitely going to be a memorable bake for you!
• Unique Flavor: This cheesy pesto tomato sourdough bread is a fun twist on traditional artisan sourdough. If you’re craving even more pizza-inspired flavor, try my Pizza Sourdough Bread.

Sourdough Baker’s Timeline

A sample baking schedule helps me when baking with sourdough. Sourdough takes much longer to rise than commercial yeast bread. This schedule helps me plan my bake.

A few notes: This schedule assumes the dough temperature is 78°F throughout the process. If you’d like to make the bread all on the same day, skip the cold fermentation and let the dough rise for a few hours in a banneton or bowl before baking.

Important Ingredients

• Sourdough Starter: Use an active/ripe sourdough starter (doubled in size/bubbly/mild sour aroma) to mix the levain.
• Cherry Tomatoes: Fresh cherry tomatoes that are in season work well in this recipe for a pop of flavor.
• Flour: A combination of bread flour with a little bit of whole wheat flour speeds up the fermentation process and gives enough protein content for a springy crumb.
• Water: Most tap water works well in this recipe. Use warm or cool water depending on the ambient temperature to keep your dough warmer or cooler as you manage fermentation.
• Salt: Salt enhances flavor and tempers fermentation.
• Pesto: You can use homemade or store bought pesto in this recipe.
• Mozzarella Cheese: For best results, shred it yourself instead of buying pre-shredded cheese.

How to Make Pesto Tomato Sourdough Bread

Mix Levain

1:1:1 Levain (ready in 3-4 hours/same day): This recipe calls for a levain mixed the same day you mix the dough. It should take 3-4 hours until it’s ready to be mixed with the dough, if you keep the levain temperature at 78-80°F. Levain is ready when it has doubled in size, has lots of bubbles, a slightly sour aroma and is just about to start going down from its peak height. Mix together:

• 40 grams of ripe/mature starter
• 40 grams of warm water
• 40 grams of bread flour

If you prefer to mix the levain the night before, you can mix a 1:10:10 levain that is ready in 10-12 hours or overnight. Mix together:

• 5 grams of ripe/mature sourdough starter
• 55 grams water
• 55 grams bread flour

If you have a ripe, bubbly, active sourdough starter that is well-maintained, you can substitute sourdough starter for the levain in this recipe.

Oven Dried Cherry Tomatoes

After you mix the levain, prepare the cherry tomatoes. Cut cherry tomatoes in half and place the cut side up on a baking sheet. Sprinkle tomatoes with a little salt. Bake tomatoes for 2.5-3 hours on 250ºF until shriveled and dried out. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Mix the Dough

This recipe does not use the fermentolyse process that is often used in my artisan sourdough bread recipes. Instead, combine ripe levain, water and pesto in a large bowl. Then add the salt, whole wheat flour and bread flour. Mix together until a sticky dough forms. Wet your hands as needed and continue to work with the dough until all the ingredients have been incorporated. Transfer the dough to a plastic container or a glass bowl and cover.

Bulk Fermentation: Stretch and Folds

For artisan style bread, we don’t use traditional kneading methods. Instead we use a series of gentle folds to help strengthen the gluten strands in the dough. This dough usually gets about 3-4 sets of stretch and folds over a 2 hour period, if the dough is kept right around 78°F.

Stretch and Fold: To “stretch and fold,” wet your hand (so it doesn’t stick to the dough). Reach down to the bottom of the bowl of dough and pull the dough up and over the top of the dough. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the stretch and fold. Turn another quarter turn and repeat. Perform one more quarter turn with stretching and folding the dough. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add the shredded cheeses on top of the dough. As you stretch and fold the dough, the cheese will begin to incorporate. Repeat another set or two of stretch and folds until the cheese is evenly spread throughout the dough.

Repeat the stretch and fold process every 30 minutes for a total of 3-4 times.

Rest the Dough, Laminate, Shape

Rest: After the 2-hour period of stretch and folds, let the dough rest in a warm 78-80°F place until puffed up and jiggly with a few scattered bubbles around the top. This usually takes 2-3 hours. If the dough doesn’t look like this, give it another half hour and check again. The dough should have risen about 30-40% by the end of the rest period.

Laminate: On a clean counter top, stretch the dough as thin as you can without tearing it. When the dough is stretched, place the oven-dried tomatoes on top of the dough, reserving a few to add in as you fold up the dough. Take a long edge of the dough and fold it to the middle. Repeat with the other edge so they meet in the middle. Add more oven-dried tomatoes. The dough will be in a long rectangle shape at this point. Take the short ends of the rectangle and fold them to the middle of the dough. Note: there is no pre-shape with this lamination method.

Shape: Prepare a banneton or small bowl. Place a kitchen towel or hair net in the bowl and liberally flour. If you use the hair net, you should not need to use much if any flour if using a cold ferment. Place both hands on the sides of the dough. Use a bench knife if one hand if desired and drag the dough on the countertop in a circular motion to shape the dough into a circle. Gather the bread into a circle and use a bench knife or your hands to lift the bread and place it top side down into your lined bowl.

Cold Fermentation

I almost always use a cold fermentation for my sourdough artisan bread, and the same goes for this pesto tomato sourdough bread. Cover the dough and place in the refrigerator for 12-20 hours. You can leave it in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours (it may overproof but will still taste good).

Alternatively, you can bake your sourdough bread the same day if you leave the dough to continue rising in a warm place for a few hours until puffy, jiggly and risen.

Score and Bake Sourdough

Pre-heat the Oven: Put a Dutch oven (top and all) into the oven and preheat to 500°F. Allow the Dutch oven to heat for about 30 minutes to an hour at 500°F. This builds up steam, which is necessary to achieve the beautiful oven spring and perfect crust that artisan bread is known for.

Scoring the Dough: Once the oven is preheated for 30 minutes, pull the loaf out of the refrigerator. Remove the plastic wrap or hairnet (this is easy to do straight out of the refrigerator if the dough is chilled – not easy if the dough warms up) and place a piece of parchment paper on top of the bread dough. Flip the dough over so that it is now sitting on the parchment paper. Take off the bowl/banneton and kitchen towel. Smooth the flour over the top of the dough and use a bread lame or very sharp knife to score the dough. I find a simple score is best when working with this dough.

Baking the Bread: Carefully remove the Dutch oven from the 500°F oven with hot pads. Take the top off and place your bread into the Dutch oven (including parchment paper – this helps with the transfer). Be very careful not to touch the sides of the hot Dutch oven. Put your hot pads back on before you pick up the lid of the Dutch oven and place it on top of the bread. Put the whole Dutch oven back into your oven. Lower the temperature to 450°F and bake for 25 minutes. Once 25 minutes are up, take the top off the Dutch oven and continue baking for 20 minutes until the bread is fully baked. Let cool before slicing and enjoy!

Frequently Asked Questions