Homemade Focaccia | Focaccia Semplice Fatta in Casa

Sep 30

11 min read

Focaccia Semplice Fatta in Casa (Italian Homemade Focaccia)

Focaccia is the simplest bread in Italy to describe and one of the hardest to bake well. Flour, water, salt, a whisper of yeast and generous olive oil become a tall, open crumb under a golden crust that crackles at the edge and stays soft in the middle. This version gets there with a night in the refrigerator and almost no work.

Yield: 12 squares. Prep: 25 minutes. Cold rest: 18 hours. Bake: 25 minutes. Difficulty: easy. Course: bread. Region: Liguria and all of Italy.

The Story

The word focaccia comes from the Latin panis focacius, the bread of the focus, which meant the hearth. Long before anyone owned an oven, people around the Mediterranean baked a flat disc of dough on hot stones or under the ashes of the fire, and the Romans gave that bread its name. Farmers baked it while the oven was still too hot for anything else, and it fed the household as a snack and a first meal of the day. It is not a pizza without toppings and not a sandwich loaf. It is the oldest idea of bread in Italy: dough pressed flat, oiled and baked hot.

Every region has taken that idea somewhere else. In Liguria, focaccia genovese is a breakfast, sold warm from the bakeries of Genoa and often dipped into milky coffee, which surprises visitors and convinces them within a bite. Its dimples hold a pool of brine and oil that soaks in and gives the top its glassy shine. Farther east, Recco makes a paper thin version filled with fresh cheese, Tuscany bakes schiacciata, and Puglia loads focaccia barese with cherry tomatoes and olives, with potato worked into the dough to keep it tender.

What they share is the pan, the oil and patience. Ligurian bakers traditionally made the dough in the evening and baked it at dawn, so the town could eat it warm before work. That schedule was practical, but it also happened to make better bread, a point cooks at home still discover with surprise. The recipe here is the plainest one, Ligurian in spirit: a soft airy crumb, a thin golden underside fried in olive oil, flaky salt on top and rosemary if you want it. Nothing else is needed, and nothing else should be added before you have baked it plain at least once.

Olive oil is the other half of the story. On the Ligurian coast, where the terraced hills grow the small, sweet Taggiasca olive, oil is not an ingredient but the medium, the seasoning and the flavor at once. A focaccia without generous oil is only a loaf of bread. With it, the humblest dough in the kitchen becomes something people queue for at seven in the morning, which is why every Italian family has a strong opinion on the right pan, the right salt and the right corner piece.

Ingredients

For the dough

Bread flour or strong 00 flour, 4 cups (500 g)
Cool water, about 65°F (18°C), 1 2/3 cups (375 ml)
Fine sea salt, 2 tsp (12 g)
Instant dry yeast, 1/4 tsp (0.8 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)

For the pan

Extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup (60 ml)

For the brine

Warm water, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)

For finishing

Flaky sea salt, 1 tsp (3 g)
Fresh rosemary leaves, 1 tbsp (3 g), optional
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml)

For the optional topping

Cherry tomatoes, halved, 1 cup (150 g)
Pitted black olives, 1/2 cup (75 g)
Red onion, thinly sliced, 1/2 small

Pan: one 13 x 18 inch (33 x 46 cm) half sheet pan. Oven: 450°F (230°C).

Ingredient notes: choose a bread flour with 12 to 13 percent protein, because a weaker flour cannot carry this much water. Use a fruity, fresh extra virgin olive oil, since its flavor is the most present thing in the finished bread. Fine sea salt dissolves in the dough, while flaky salt stays crunchy on top, so keep both. Instant yeast can go straight into the flour with no proofing.

Preparation

Mix the dough

Stir the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add the water and the 2 tbsp of oil and mix with a wet hand or a spoon for about 2 minutes, until no dry flour remains. The dough will be shaggy and very sticky, and that is correct. Do not add flour to fix it. Cover the bowl and leave it for 30 minutes so the flour can absorb the water on its own.

Fold and rest

Wet your hand and lift one edge of the dough, stretching it up and folding it over the middle. Turn the bowl a quarter and repeat, eight to ten folds in total. The dough will tighten and smooth out. Rest 30 minutes, then do the same set of folds once more. Two rounds are enough to build a strong, stretchy structure without any kneading, and the dough should now feel smooth, elastic and slightly domed when you press it.

Mature the dough in the cold

Oil a container with a lid, lay the dough in it, cover and refrigerate for 16 to 20 hours at about 39°F (4°C). It will rise only a little, by half at most, and that is all it should do. Longer rests up to 24 hours are fine, and the flavor becomes deeper and slightly nutty as the hours go by. Choose a container with room to grow, because the dough will slowly swell even at this temperature.

Warm the dough and fill the pan

Pour the 1/4 cup of oil into the half sheet pan and tilt it to coat the corners. Slide the cold dough into the pan, turn it once to oil the top and leave it uncovered at room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until it feels soft, jiggles when the pan is shaken and shows bubbles at the surface. Do not stretch it straight from the refrigerator. The dough is ready when a fingertip pressed lightly leaves a mark that springs back slowly.

Stretch in two stages

With oiled fingertips, press the dough gently toward the edges of the pan, dimpling as you go. It will pull back. Leave it for 15 minutes, then stretch again until it reaches the corners. The pause lets the gluten relax, so the second stretch stays where you put it. Rest 20 minutes more while the oven heats, and do not worry if the surface looks uneven, since the dimples will hide it.

Dimple and brine

Set a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat it to 450°F (230°C). Whisk the warm water, oil and 1/2 tsp salt into a cloudy brine. Press your fingertips straight down to the pan bottom all over the dough, then pour the brine across the surface so that it collects in the dimples. Scatter the flaky salt and rosemary.

Bake until golden

Bake for 22 to 26 minutes, rotating the pan once at the halfway point, until the top is deep golden and the edges are dark and crisp. Slide a spatula under a corner: the underside should be evenly browned. Leave the focaccia in the pan for 2 minutes, then move it to a rack and brush the top with the last tablespoon of oil while it is hot.

Plating

Let the focaccia rest on a rack for 10 minutes so the steam escapes and the crumb sets. Cut it with a serrated knife or a sharp pizza wheel into 12 squares, or into long strips for a table of guests. Serve it warm on a wooden board with a small bowl of your best olive oil and a few flakes of salt beside it.

For a first course, split a square horizontally and fill it with mortadella, or with tomatoes and a spoon of ricotta. For an aperitivo, stack squares beside olives, cured meats and cheese. It is also the natural companion to soup, roasted vegetables and grilled fish. Serve the pieces warm, never chilled, and do not stack them for long, or the steam softens the crust you worked to build.

Professional Technique

The technical core of this focaccia is cold maturation with a very small dose of yeast. Here the dough gets only 1/4 teaspoon (0.8 g) of instant dry yeast for 4 cups (500 g) of flour, about 0.16 percent, and then rests for 16 to 20 hours at about 39°F (4°C). A fast rise with plenty of yeast is finished in two hours but leaves the bread tasting only of yeast and gives none of the depth of a long rest.

In the refrigerator the fermentation slows to a crawl, but the enzymes in the flour keep working. Amylase releases sugars from the starch, which color the crust and add a quiet sweetness, and proteases loosen the gluten and start breaking down proteins. Bacteria and yeast build a complex, faintly nutty aroma. The result is a bread with more flavor than any quick dough can give, and one that is easier to digest, because starches and proteins are partly broken down before you eat them.

The same relaxation makes the dough far easier to stretch, because the gluten network has loosened during the night. This is also why two rules follow. First, the dough must leave the refrigerator and come to room temperature, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, before you touch it. Cold dough is stiff and tears when pushed, and its yeast has not woken up. Second, you stretch in two stages with a 15 minute pause between them, so the gluten can relax again and the dough stays at the edges of the pan instead of retracting.

Texture and Moisture Control

The crumb of focaccia is open and moist because the dough is wet, about 75 percent hydration, and because it is handled gently. Folding builds structure without knocking out the gas. If you press hard or knead, the bubbles collapse and the crumb turns close and bready. Wet hands and a light touch keep the interior airy and tender, with large irregular holes.

The crust depends on the oil. A generous layer under the dough fries the base in the oven, giving it a thin golden crackle, while the oil and brine on top make the surface glossy and keep it from drying into a cracker. The brine also carries salt into the dimples so that it seasons the crumb instead of only the crust. The dimples matter as much as the oil: they trap the brine, stop the surface from puffing, and give every bite both a soft and a crisp part.

Heat completes the texture. A hot oven at 450°F (230°C) and a low rack give the dough strong oven spring and brown the bottom before the middle dries. Baked cooler or on a high rack, the top burns before the base colors. Cool the focaccia on a rack, not in the pan, because trapped steam softens the crust you have just built.

Professional Mise en Place

This is a bread that rewards planning far more than effort. Almost all the work happens the day before, and on the day the tasks are to warm the dough, stretch it, dimple it and bake it. Organize the schedule backward from the time you want to serve.

Equipment and tools

Large bowl and a lidded container for the refrigerator
Half sheet pan, 13 x 18 inches (33 x 46 cm), heavy and light colored
Digital scale and an oven thermometer
Bench scraper, serrated knife and a wire rack

Prepared ahead

Dough mixed and folded the day before, refrigerated 16 to 20 hours
Rosemary picked from the stems and chopped roughly
Brine mixed and left ready in a small jug, whisked again before using
Toppings cut, dried on paper towels and kept covered in the refrigerator

Service setup

Dough out of the refrigerator two hours before baking
Oven fully preheated, with a rack in the lower third
Focaccia baked last, cut and served warm within 30 minutes
Board, knife, olive oil and flaky salt on the table before the pan leaves the oven

Chef Tips

Weigh the flour and the water. Cups vary by 20 percent depending on how you scoop, and this dough is sensitive to hydration. Use a bread flour with 12 to 13 percent protein, or a strong 00, for the chewy, elastic crumb this bread needs.

Use a light colored pan. A dark pan browns the base too fast and can leave the bottom bitter before the top is done. Do not skimp on the oil in the pan, because it is the frying medium and the source of the crust.

Be generous with the dimples. Pressing to the bottom of the pan stops the dough from puffing like a pillow and holds the brine in place. Finish with the last tablespoon of oil while the focaccia is hot, so that it soaks in and does not sit on the surface.

Once you know the plain version, make it yours: halved cherry tomatoes and olives, thin slices of red onion, or a scatter of grated Parmigiano Reggiano in the last 5 minutes of baking.

Common Mistakes

Adding too much yeast. More yeast makes the dough rise fast but cancels the slow flavor. Stay with 1/4 teaspoon for this amount of flour and let time do the work.

Baking the dough straight from the refrigerator. Cold dough will not stretch, tears at the corners and bakes into a dense, uneven slab. Give it the full two hours at room temperature.

Adding extra flour to a sticky dough. The stickiness is the hydration that makes the crumb open. Use wet or oiled hands and a scraper instead of flour.

Stretching in one go. A dough forced to the corners in a single pass springs back and leaves gaps and a thick middle. Stretch, rest, then stretch again.

Baking at too low a temperature. Below 425°F (220°C) the focaccia dries out before it colors and comes out pale and tough. Preheat fully and use the lower rack.

Salting the dough with only flaky salt. Coarse flakes do not dissolve evenly in the dough. Use fine sea salt inside and keep the flakes for the top.

Wine Pairing

Riviera Ligure di Ponente Pigato DOC: The wine of the same coast where focaccia is eaten at breakfast. It is dry, with citrus, Mediterranean herbs and a pleasant salty finish that matches the flaky salt and rosemary. Its firm acidity cuts through the olive oil and refreshes the palate after every bite. Serve it well chilled, in a medium glass, and it will make a simple slice feel like a small feast by the sea.

Vermentino di Gallura DOCG: Crisp and mineral, with lemon, white flowers and a slightly bitter almond finish. The brisk acidity lifts the oil in the crust, and its light body leaves the flavor of the bread and the herbs clearly in front. Ideal with focaccia topped with tomatoes, olives or cheese, and equally good with a plain warm square at the end of a busy afternoon.

Franciacorta DOCG: A dry sparkling wine made by the traditional method. Its fine bubbles and toasty, yeasty notes echo the baked crust, while the bright acidity resets the palate after the olive oil. A festive choice for an aperitivo with squares still warm from the oven, and its dryness keeps the fat of the oil from feeling heavy.

Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC: Choose a dry, or secco, bottle: pale ruby, lightly sparkling, with wild strawberry fruit, high acidity and very little tannin. It cleans the fat of the oil, and it is the natural partner when the focaccia is split and filled with mortadella, salumi or cheese. Serve it cool but not icy, so its fruit comes forward.

Storage & Reheating

Focaccia is best on the day it is baked. Keep the cooled leftovers loosely covered at room temperature for up to 24 hours, in a paper bag or a bread box. A sealed plastic bag softens the crust, so use one only after the second day, and always let the focaccia cool completely first, or the steam will collect inside.

For longer storage, cut the cooled focaccia into squares, wrap them tightly and freeze for up to 2 months. Refrigerating is not recommended, because it dries the crumb faster than the counter does. To reheat, place the squares directly on the oven rack at 375°F (190°C) for 6 to 8 minutes, from frozen or from room temperature, until the crust crackles again. Microwaving turns it leathery, and toasting a split square in a hot pan with a little oil gives excellent results.