Focaccia Erbe Fresche
The aroma of this homemade focaccia will fill your home with the fragrance of Italy. This is a great way to use the fresh herbs from my garden at the end of the season. (Note: the remainder of the herbs I dry out and use all year long)
Focaccia is a flat, oven baked bread that is similar to thick crusted pizza. Focaccia is typical of Liguria, but is popular throughout Italy and is usually seasoned just with olive oil and salt. It might also be flavored with herbs, vegetables, or cheese. Focaccia can be used as a side to many meals or as sandwich bread. *
Most ethnicities have a flat bread and traditional ways to make it. In Greece, they enjoy a flat bread called Lagana. Matzo is an unleavened flatbread that is part of Jewish cuisine. Bing is a wheat flour-based Chinese bread with a flattened or disk-like shape. In ancient Rome, panis focacius was a flatbread baked in the ashes of the hearth and required an skilled hand to make it perfect. In Spain it's called hogaza, fogassa in Catalonia, fugàssa in Ligurian, pogača in the Balkans, pogácsa in Hungary, fougasse in Provence (originally spelled fogatza), fouace or fouée in other French regions and on the Channel Islands. **
So many different words for a flat bread - who knew?
This recipe is for foccaccia erbe fresche (flat bread with fresh herbs) - a fancy name for a simple bread.
Let's get started, you'll need:
Pizza dough (you can make your own or use the recipe on this blog:https://www.hometownflavors.org/single-post/2017/09/22/Homemade-Pepperoni-Pizza) or purchase it
Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Fresh Herbs (Thyme, oregano, parsley and rosemary - chopped)
Head of Roasted Garlic
Cookie sheet or flat pan
Drizzle the bottom of the pan with a good cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. How do you know if it's good? When purchasing an olive oil, it can get very confusing. I follow a simple rule, a good extra virgin olive oil should be grown, pressed and bottled in a single country. If it's a product of Italy, chances are the olives were not grown there, only packaged there. Take the time and read the bottle carefully. A good olive oil may cost a little bit more but there's a big difference in taste from the cheaper imitation one.
Put the oiled pan into the oven for approximately 10 mins. (you want the oil very hot, this makes a crispy bottom to the bread) CAREFULLY spread the pizza dough into the hot pan. Leave the dough about 1/2" thick and poke holes. To do this, push your fingers down into the dough (do not go down to the hot pan) creating valleys in the dough. They will fill with olive oil and fresh herbs - yum.
Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil on top of the dough, with half of your fresh herbs. (you can add course salt at this point also). Bake for 15 mins on 400 degrees or until the bread is done. (golden brown)
When the bread is done, add a little more olive oil and the remainder of the fresh herbs. Serve with a bulb of roasted garlic and a glass of Chianti.
(Roasted garlic bulb: cut the top of the garlic and drizzle with olive oil and add salt/pepper. Enclosed the bulb in aluminum foil and bake in an oven set at 325 degrees for 30 mins. When you serve the roasted garlic, the entire bulb is put on a dish and your guests will squeeze out the garlic onto the foccacia bread.)
Alternative toppings for the foccacia bread:
Thinly sliced tomatoes would be wonderful but increase the amount of oregano and add the course sea salt.
Omit the herbs - use sliced apples (thinly), brie cheese sliced thin (wrap in plastic wrap and put in the freezer for 10 mins before cutting) and drizzle with apricot jam that has been melted.
After the bread is baked (drizzled with olive oil before baking) spread bacon jam, sliced figs and top with crumbled blue cheese. Bacon jam is a bacon-based relish, similar to the Austrian starter Verhackert. It is made through a process of slow cooking the bacon, along with onions, vinegar, brown sugar and spices, before mixing in a food processor. Wikipedia
Sweet Foccacia Bread: after baked, spread a thin layer of raspberry jam. Add fresh strawberries and alternate drizzling melted dark chocolate and melted peanut butter over the bread. Dust with powdered sugar.
Enjoy!
Ref. source * Wikipedia
** History of Flat Bread