During my time exploring the Italian Riviera, I had the pleasure of tasting the regional specialty, Focaccia, in all of its authentic glory and varieties. Italy wasn’t my first time trying the bread but the homemade variety (usually made by my Italian in-laws) although delicious in its own right, could not compare to what I found.
You know when you try something so good, the memory of the experience stays with you forever? Well, this happened to me in a focaccia eatery nestled high atop the Ligurian town of Corniglia. I had an experience similar to that of the food critic from Ratatouille in the flashback scene (if you’ve seen the movie you know what I’m talking about). It was so good, my brain couldn’t comprehend what was happening. I was left absolutely speechless, my eyes wide and bulging. How could something so simple, taste so damn good?
It was a plain piece of focaccia topped with tomato and basil but I was in heaven. The bread was a perfect consistency; crispy and bubbly on the outside, airy, and soft on the inside. A perfect balance of salt to olive oil, not greasy but not dry, and…the toppings! The basic staples of fresh, simple ingredients really sent things over the edge.
After returning back home, I tried a few recipes trying to recreate my experience. I watched countless videos on how focaccia Genovese is made, what techniques were used, what type of pans were utilized and at every attempt, nothing really came close. Finally, I decided to streamline things and make things as simple as possible. I played around with ingredients, pans, techniques and the recipe I’m sharing with you today is both the easiest and the closest I’ve come to the focaccia.
My favourite topping of choice is fresh basil and tomato but you can top your focaccia with whatever toppings you’d like! I will provide some options to give you some ideas, but the possibilities are endless. Whatever you choose, I’m sure it will be delicious. Try it out and let me know what you think!
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour (All purpose)
- 2 cups warm water (110°F – 115°F)
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp active dry yeast (instant)
- olive oil (good quality)
- coarse sea salt
- toppings of choice: tomato, fresh basil, fresh rosemary, garlic, olives, caramelized onions, potato slices, seasonings of choice
Instructions
- Add flour, water, salt, and yeast to stand mixer
- Mix on medium speed to form a wet dough
- Grease a large bowl with olive oil, place dough in bowl, and oil dough with olive oil
- Let rise to rise covered in the fridge for 12 hours or overnight
- Take out of the fridge, deflate and place in the oven with the oven light on to proof for 3-4 hours
- Without deflating the dough, let the dough fall from the bowl and into a greased baking pan (use olive oil to grease, I use a 10-2Xinch circular pan)
- Using tips of fingers, press into dough to create indentations
- With a spoon drizzle olive oil into indentations and over dough, a tbsp or two will be enough
- Lightly sprinkle coarse sea salt over the top (If you don’t have coarse sea salt you can create a salt-water mixture to lightly drizzle over and into indentations)
- Add your toppings and seasonings of choice
- Bake at 350°F until golden brown and the top is crispy
- Drizzle with olive oil when hot out of the oven and let cool before cutting
ENJOY!