· By Canned Wine Co.
Recipe: Focaccia
Does anything look, smell and taste better than a freshly baked focaccia? The answer is yes… a freshly baked focaccia with a Fiano on the side. This extremely popular bread is first thought to have been created before the start of the Roman empire in Italy, meaning that Romans were likely enjoying this food combination of Fiano and Focaccia, as both were around at the time. Although making bread may seem intimidating, focaccia is the perfect place to start for beginners! It is super easy to make, no need to knead, no need for special bread-making equipment, and no frustrating folding or cutting! If you want to eat like a Roman, here’s a simple focaccia recipe to help you on your way. The recipe works best if you make the dough a day in advance, but you can go up to 3 days or as little as a couple hours based on your time schedule (although the results will improve the longer you leave it up to a day)
Ingredients you’ll need
- Flour
- Yeast
- Salt
- Olive oil
- Rosemary or other toppings
That’s all you need, it is so easy! Start off by making the dough - Whisk together 500 grams of flour, two teaspoons of salt and two teaspoons of yeast together. After sufficiently whisking, add 450ml of water and stir with a spatula, your mixture should start clumping together and resemble a dough. That’s pretty much it for the dough, just fully glaze the top with a healthy amount of olive oil and cover the bowl you have made it in as best you can, airtight if possible. This is when you leave it in the fridge for around 18-24 hours, although you can go over or under as previously mentioned.
After you’ve left the dough to rise for around a day, transfer it to a square baking dish(es) you want to bake it in. If you are using glass dishes for this, be sure to grease them with butter to stop the dough from sticking, and also pour a tablespoon of olive oil into your dish. Your then going to leave it for another couple of hours, until the dough spreads out and fills your dish. Put the oven on to preheat at 220°C before starting the fun part, dimpling! You just have to poke the dough to make little dips and dimples, in between sprinkling some sea salt flakes and rosemary over the top, you really can’t go wrong. If you want to add any sundried tomatoes or extra toppings on top of your focaccia, make sure they’re free of all their juices before glazing them with olive oil and adding them on top.
You can now get your bread into the oven as quickly as possible, and leave it to bake for around 25 mins at 220°C, or until the top turns a golden, crispy brown. Take your focaccia out and leave it to cool slightly outside of the dish, although warm focaccia is lovely! You can now enjoy this iconic Italian food alongside a vibrant and zesty can of Fiano. If you want a main meal to go along with your focaccia, Assassin’s spaghetti will complete your meal perfectly, and you can find out how to make that in our other recipe blog.
