The essence of Italy

Passport & Plate - Focaccia ai pomodorini, olive e basilico

Italy | Thursday, March 13, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
For the yeast:
10 g fresh yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp lukewarm water

For the dough:
300g all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
150ml lukewarm water
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey

For the topping:
150 g sweet (grappolo) cherry tomatoes
black olives to taste
fresh basil leaves
olive oil
salt

 

How to prepare this recipe
Dissolve fresh yeast in lukewarm water with sugar. Cover and leave it to activate (it has to rise and become foamy). Put the flour on a clean worktop and make a hole in the middle. Sprinkle it around with salt. Pour water, activated yeast, olive oil and honey in the middle and start to mix the flour with the liquid ingredients by moving you fingers in circles. When the dough starts forming, knead it for at least 10 minutes. The dough should not stick to the worktop and should be very smooth and elastic. Put it in a bowl, brush lightly with olive oil, cover with plastic and leave in a warm place to double in size. When doubled, transfer on a baking sheet and spread it using fingers dipped in olive oil. The dough should be approximately 1 cm thick. Leave it aside and prepare the topping. Mix the tomatoes, olives and some fresh basil leaves with a bit of salt and olive oil. Put the topping on the dough and press it in. Sprinkle the focaccia with some more olive oil, cover lightly with a baking sheet and leave it briefly to rise. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for half an hour, brush with olive oil and transfer to a cooling rack. Add fresh basil leaves on top before serving.

 

The story behind this recipe
Sunny morning in Rome. Chilly, but sunny. I have classes in only 15 minutes! I have to buy some cappuccino, can't go to class without my favorite capuccino! And a cornetto! The waiter, always with a smile, gives me my capuccino and a cornetto to go. Ready for class! People from all over the world around me, I could stay here all day. Lunch break has started, let's take a walk, it's sunny. Tevere and Vaticano are 5 minutes away. But what are we going to eat?! We run off to our favorite paninoteca and we're in heaven! Italy depicted in infinite focaccia breads and pizzas: sunny tomatoes, olives and olive oil, Mediterranean herbs, mozzarella, provolone, parmigiano, mortadella, porchetta, ricotta, prosciutto... What to choose, hm?! Well, I guess I'll take... everything? ;). The bright colors, the flavors and the pure Mediterranean aromas of a focaccia always take me back to Italy and bring back memories of perfect moments in the streets of Rome, Firenze, Trieste, Venezia... Of all of those lunch breaks, glasses of Italian wine with a side of focaccia and my friends from all over the world, dinners at trattorias and us waiting for our favorite pasta dish to come out and fighting over pieces of focaccia on our table, discussing loudly everything that comes to our mind (well, I guess that's what you get when you combine Italians and us Croatians at the same table :D ). Focaccia reminds me of my first culinary steps with Italian inspired breads, of my mother's smile every time I make one for her, of all of my friends' infinite 'mmm' when they bite into foccacias I prepare for our get togethers, of all of those 'Please, make some foccacica' I hear oh so often. And why focaccia? Because it catches the essence of Italian cuisine and everything I adore about it, simplicity, traditional Mediterranean high quality ingredients and fresh herbs that always make a perfect match. And because as soon as I put my hands on the dough I'm in Italy again, one of my favorite places on Earth.