The wonderful Focaccia Ligure cames from Genoa (Italy). Focaccia: This is a simple savory bread warm from the oven, to be enjoyed with a crisp cool white wine, or a rosé from the regione di Ponente (western Liguria, where the sun sets over the mountains). It's also a wonderful base for a sandwich, and is one of the finest nibble-foods there is.
To serve 6 you'll need:
Ingredients:
- 7 1/2 cups (750 g) unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 ounces (50 g) active yeast of the kind sold in the supermarket.
- 1/3 cup extravirgin olive oil
- Salt, both finely and coarsely ground (kosher will work well for the latter)
Preparation:
Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Make a mound of flour on your work surface, scoop a well into the middle of it, and pour in the yeast mixture together with 5 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 healthy pinches of fine salt.
Knead the mixture, adding small amounts of warm water as necessary, until you obtain a fairly firm, homogeneous dough. Put it in a bowl, cover it with a damp cloth, and let it rise for 2 hours.
Preheat your oven to 400 F (200 C).
Grease a baking sheet and dust it well with finely ground salt. Take the risen dough, flatten it out, and spread it enough to completely cover the baking sheet, dimpling the surface by pressing down on it with a spoon. Take the remaining oil and beat it lightly with a little water to make an emulsion; brush this emulsion over the focaccia and sprinkle it with coarse sea salt.
Bake the focaccia until it is a lively golden brown, then remove it and let it cool. Don't let it overbrown.
A couple of tips:
Put a bowl of water in the oven with the focaccia, to keep it from drying out overmuch as it bakes.
To help the dough rise, you can add a teaspoon of honey, malt extract, or sugar to it.
