In honor of our love for all things Soprano’s, my brother and sister-in-law decided to throw an Italian themed dinner party (although my brother vetoed *ahem* my hopes for Carmela-esque talons and dodgy shirts), and I offered to bring something along. My Soprano’s cookbook has lots of Italian-American recipes, but I wanted to have a go at a proper authentic Italian recipe. I also wanted something that would please everyone, so I got to work researching the perfect recipe.
With kind permission from the lovely Silvia from Silvia’s Cucina, I’d like to share with you all this gorgeous Focaccia recipe that I used – it went down a storm!
I made two batches, but here are the ingredients for one Focaccia (Serves 6-8, dependant on greed):
- 1 x 7g sachet of easy bake yeast
- 180ml lukewarm water
- 1 x tsp squeezy honey
- 320g plain flour
- 2 x tbsp. olive oil
- 2 x tsp salt
- To glaze: 2 x tbsp olive oil mixed with 1 x tbsp water
First, I mixed the yeast and lukewarm water together, and added it to my bowl of plain flour. I then added the oil and honey.
You can knead this mixture by hand for about 5 minutes, but I used my electric mixer with a dough hook attachment.
I mixed for about 1 minute, added my salt, then mixed for another minute and shaped it into a wee ball. I covered the bowl with a tea towel and left for 20 minutes.
I stretched the ball into a rectangular shape then folded in half, then in half again. According to Silvia, this gives your dough strength and texture, making it soft and airy.
I placed it into an oiled baking dish (mines was 30cm x 25cm) and covered with a tea towel again. This time I left it for 90 mins. Look at the size of it now!
I stretched the dough out so it filled the dish evenly, then sprinkled with sea salt. I left it for another 30 mins.
Next, I pressed my finger into the dough to make little holes throughout, like this:
At this point, I glazed the dough with my olive oil/water mix, sprinkled with a little more sea salt, then gave it its final rest for 20 mins.
I pre-heated my oven to 180 degrees and baked for 25 minutes.
Once I arrived at the party, I reheated for 10 mins at 200 degrees and cut into wedges. I’m thrilled to say it went down a treat!
I’ll definitely be making this again very soon. I might freeze wedges of it and take into work with some homemade soup to get me through my lunch hours.
It might seem like a lot of work, what with all the proving/resting time, but it’s 100% worth it. Have a wee shot at it on your next lazy Sunday… you won’t regret it!
Enjoy
