Cheese without bread? Mon dieu. I still remember when I forgot to bring baguettes to a cheese tasting and got reprimanded by an irritated Frenchman. I’ll never do that again. Sturdy, chewy bread is maybe the only thing I love as much as cheese (well, wine is up there), and Della Fattoria loaves are a gold standard for me. Last week, we lost Della Fattoria founder Kathleen Weber—too quickly, too soon. 

An ex-hippie whose home-baking hobby spawned a business she never planned (her husband, Ed, jokingly called it “the hobby from hell”), Weber was in the forefront of the wood-oven baking movement. She was also an early advocate of baking only with natural starters and no added yeast. 

Weber received a cancer diagnosis late last year and was gone within two months. Her son, Aaron, has been the head baker for the Petaluma, California-based bakery for years, so the business isn’t threatened. But we have lost a pioneer, a generous spirit, a mentor. When my husband was trying to improve his own home-baking skills, she invited him to spend a day at the bakery, helping and watching. (I should put “helping” in quotes.) He came home exhausted.

“Kathleen’s bread was super unique,” says Craig Ponsford, an instructor at Petaluma’s Artisan Baking Center and professional baking coach. “I can pick out the Della Fattoria bread anywhere.” Weber made Italian breads her focus when everyone else was still baking French, notes Ponsford, and she was a woman in a male-dominated industry. “A tough woman, by the way,” he adds.

I first visited the bakery, at the Webers’ rural Petaluma home, to do a story for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1998. In a head-spinningly short time, Kathleen had gone from baking for her family to baking for friends to getting an unsolicited order from a prominent chef. In the early years, demand grew so swiftly that Kathleen claimed that she did most of her sleeping at stoplights. “The people behind me would let me know when the light changed,” she joked.

Today, Della Fattoria encompasses not only the wholesale bakery but a thriving Petaluma café, a true nexus of the community. Her book, Della Fattoria Bread, has a place of honor on my husband’s bookshelf. In it she wrote to him, “When it comes to bread, we are kindred spirits. You are a gifted baker and my hope is that you will have fun with these recipes.” She also told him to send her photos of his results. How nice is that?

Kathleen Weber’s Pimento Cheese

From Della Fattoria Bread by Kathleen Weber (Artisan). 

• 2-1/2 cups (about 8 ounces) lightly packed grated extra-sharp Cheddar, preferably half white and half orange

• ¾ cup mayonnaise, preferably homemade

• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped drained piquillo peppers or other roasted red peppers

• ¼ teaspoon Sriracha or other hot sauce to taste

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 

With a fork, mix the cheese and mayonnaise in a medium bowl until combined but not completely smooth (the cheese should still stay in shreds). Add the peppers and season with the Sriracha, if using, and salt and pepper to taste.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or preferably overnight. The flavor will get better and better.

Makes about 2 cups

NEW! 2020 World Cheese Tour Classes Announced

Please join me for the ninth year of the World Cheese Tour, a monthly series of guided cheese tastings at the beautiful Silverado Cooking School in Napa. You’ll find new class themes this year and, as always, many new cheeses. I rarely repeat a cheese! Come learn more about Spanish cheeses, raw-milk rockstars, or cheese and wine pairing. Find the complete schedule here.