Matera Style Focaccia | Focaccia Materana

Name: Matera Style Focaccia (Focaccia Materana)
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 52 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Italian, Basilicata
Ingredients: Semola rimacinata (finely milled durum semolina), 3 1/2 cups (500 g); Water, lukewarm at 90°F (32°C), 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (375 ml); Lievito madre (stiff natural leaven), refreshed 4 hours earlier, 1/2 cup (125 g); Fine sea salt, 2 teaspoons (11 g); Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons (30 ml); Ripe plum tomatoes, crushed by hand and drained, 10 oz (300 g); Dried oregano, 2 teaspoons (2 g); Coarse sea salt, 1 teaspoon (5 g); Black olives, pitted and torn, optional, 1/3 cup (60 g); Red onion, sliced paper thin and soaked 10 minutes in cold water, optional, 1 small (100 g); Extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup (60 ml); Semolina, for dusting, 2 tablespoons (20 g)

Sep 29

11 min read

Updated: Oct 24

Focaccia Materana (Matera Style Focaccia)

Focaccia materana is a bread baker's focaccia, not a soft pan of oil and dimples. It is made from the durum semolina dough of pane di Matera, pressed flat and sent into an oven at full heat. The crumb is deep gold and open, the edges crackle, and the bite is firm enough to carry tomato, oregano and olive oil without collapsing.

Here the dough is the dish and the topping is only its seasoning. This version rebuilds it for a home oven, with a natural leaven, a long rest and a bake on hot steel.

Yield: 8 servings. Prep: 40 minutes. Ferment: 5 hours. Bake: 12 minutes. Region: Basilicata, Matera.

The Story

Matera is a bread town before it is anything else. The Sassi, the cave districts cut into the tufa above the Gravina gorge, were served for centuries by communal wood fired ovens. Families mixed and leavened dough at home, stamped each loaf with a carved wooden mark bearing their initials, and carried it through the alleys to the neighbourhood baker. What came back was pane di Matera, today an IGP: a tall durum semolina loaf raised with lievito madre, dark of crust and still good after a week. That keeping quality was the point in a landscape where a household baked once and ate for six days.

Focaccia was a side effect of that system. Before the loaves went in, the baker needed to know whether the oven was right. He tore off a piece of dough, pressed it flat in a metal pan, dressed it with whatever was at hand and slid it into the hottest part of the chamber. It baked in minutes and answered his questions: was the floor too fierce, had the vault cooled, had the fire been drawn too early. Then it was eaten standing up, by the baker and by anyone waiting for bread. That is why nobody in Matera treats it as a separate recipe. It is the bread, early.

The dressings follow season and pantry. Crushed summer tomatoes with dried oregano and coarse salt are the classic, sliced onion softened in oil belongs to the cooler months, and black olives from the Bradano valley appear in both. What never appears is the soft, dimpled focaccia of Liguria, a soft wheat bread enriched with oil and kept tender. The Materan version is a durum bread that happens to be flat, and the colour of the crumb shows the difference before you taste it.

The wheat matters as much as the oven. Durum has grown on the plateaus of Basilicata and Puglia for centuries, and semola rimacinata, milled twice to a fine, powdery grain, is the flour that made this bread possible in a region with little else to farm. It gives the crumb its yellow colour, its faint sweetness and a nutty note that soft wheat flour never reproduces.

The focaccia suits the town: cheap, quick, made from the same dough as the loaf and eaten wherever people happen to be. In the bakeries of the Sassi and the newer streets above them it still comes out beside the loaves in the early morning, bought by the square and eaten wrapped in paper. Visitors who expect the oily focaccia of the coast are surprised by how dry, golden and quietly savoury it is, and by how well it keeps.

Ingredients

Use semola rimacinata, not the coarse semolina sold for pasta and not fine flour marked 00. Weigh a stiff lievito madre rather than measuring it by the cup. Choose ripe plum tomatoes, or canned whole San Marzano tomatoes crushed and drained, and an olive oil with a green, peppery edge.

For the dough

Semola rimacinata (finely milled durum semolina), 3 1/2 cups (500 g)
Water, lukewarm at 90°F (32°C), 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (375 ml)
Lievito madre (stiff natural leaven), refreshed 4 hours earlier, 1/2 cup (125 g)
Fine sea salt, 2 teaspoons (11 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons (30 ml)

For the topping

Ripe plum tomatoes, crushed by hand and drained, 10 oz (300 g)
Dried oregano, 2 teaspoons (2 g)
Coarse sea salt, 1 teaspoon (5 g)
Black olives, pitted and torn, optional, 1/3 cup (60 g)
Red onion, sliced paper thin and soaked 10 minutes in cold water, optional, 1 small (100 g)

For the parchment and finishing

Extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Semolina, for dusting, 2 tablespoons (20 g)
Parchment paper, 12 x 16 inches (30 x 40 cm), 1 sheet

Preparation

Hydrate the semolina

Hydrating finely milled durum semolina with water.

Put the semola in a wide bowl and add 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) of the lukewarm water, holding back the rest. Mix by hand only until no dry flour remains. The mass will look shaggy and stiff, and that is correct. Cover and leave it for 45 minutes. Coarse durum particles absorb water slowly, so a dough that felt gritty turns smooth and extensible without any kneading.

Work in the leaven, salt and oil

Folding natural leaven into the hydrated semolina dough.

Tear the lievito madre into small pieces and work it in with wet hands until it disappears. Dissolve the salt in the remaining water, about 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (75 ml), and add it in three additions, letting the dough absorb each one first. Squeeze in the olive oil. Knead in the bowl for 6 to 8 minutes with a folding motion, until the dough leaves the sides and feels supple and slightly tacky at 78°F (26°C).

Ferment with coil folds

Giving the fermenting dough a coil fold.

Cover the bowl and ferment for 3 to 4 hours at 75 to 78°F (24 to 26°C), with coil folds at 45, 90 and 135 minutes. The dough is ready when it has grown by about 70 percent, domes as you tilt the bowl and shows blisters under the surface. It should smell of yoghurt and warm wheat, never of vinegar.

Stretch the dough in two stages

Stretching focaccia dough on oiled semolina-dusted parchment.

Set the parchment on the back of a sheet pan, brush it with 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of the oil and dust it with the semolina. Turn the dough out in one piece and press outward from the centre with oiled, flat fingers until it covers two thirds of the sheet. It will spring back. Cover and rest 20 minutes, then press to the edges. Cover again and proof 60 to 90 minutes, until puffy and jiggling as a single piece.

Drain and dress the tomatoes

Scattering drained crushed tomato and oregano over the dough.

While the dough proofs, crush the tomatoes by hand into rough shreds and drain them in a sieve for 15 minutes, because their water is the greatest threat to the crust. Dimple the risen dough with oiled fingertips, almost to the bottom, so the hollows hold oil and tomato. Scatter the tomato in irregular patches with bare dough showing between them. Add the olives or onion if you use them, then the oregano rubbed between your palms, the coarse salt and the last 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of oil in a thin thread.

Bake on the steel, then grill

Baking focaccia directly on the hot steel after removing parchment.

Slide the parchment and dough onto the preheated steel or stone, set up as described under Professional Technique. After 3 minutes, pull the parchment out from under the dough with tongs so the base meets the metal. Bake 8 minutes at 500°F (260°C) in all, until the edges turn deep amber, then switch to the grill for 2 to 3 minutes, watching the oregano, until the tomato rims blister and caramelise.

Rack, rest and cut

Cooling and cutting focaccia to reveal its open golden crumb.

Slide the focaccia onto a wire rack at once. Left on hot metal, the base steams and softens within five minutes. Rest it 10 minutes so the crumb sets, then cut with a serrated knife or a bench scraper in one decisive stroke. Sawing drags the topping across the surface.

Plating

Serve it like bakery bread. Cut generous rectangles of about 3 x 4 inches (8 x 10 cm) and pile them slightly overlapping on a wooden board or a heavy terracotta plate, cut edges facing the guest so the open crumb shows first. The burnished tomato, the pale yellow interior and the dark edges do the visual work, so add nothing on top.

Serve it warm, never refrigerator cold and never under a cloche, which condenses steam onto the crust. Keep cured meats and local cheese in a separate dish, because laid on the focaccia they soften it within minutes. A small bowl of the same olive oil is the only sauce it needs.

Professional Technique

The technical problem of this focaccia is heat, and specifically the violent burst from below that a Matera wood oven delivers. The baker slides the dough onto a floor charged with fire, and the base takes that heat in seconds, so the dough inflates before the crust has time to form. A domestic oven cannot reach that, and a pan set on a rack makes it worse.

You compensate with stored heat. Put a refractory stone or a baking steel on the lowest rack, or on the oven floor if the manufacturer allows it, and preheat at the maximum, 500 to 550°F (260 to 290°C), for at least 60 minutes for a stone and 45 minutes for a steel. The oven air reaches temperature long before the slab does, and the slab is what matters. Bake directly on it. The first minutes of contact turn the water in the dough to steam and lift the crumb, the oven spring a cold tray never gives. For the last 2 to 3 minutes turn on the grill, which supplies the top heat of the wood vault and colours the surface without drying the inside.

A thin pan gives a different result because it stores almost nothing. A sheet pan is a few hundred grams of aluminium that heats with the air and cools the moment cold dough touches it, so the base cooks slowly by gentle conduction and stews in its own oil. A stone or steel is a reservoir of several kilograms. When the dough lands it hands over heat faster than the element can replace it, and the base sets almost at once. The result is a taller, more open focaccia with a blistered, crackling base instead of a pale and bready one.

Texture and Moisture Control

Three components decide the texture. Durum protein forms a stiffer, less elastic gluten than soft wheat, so the crumb is firm and slightly granular rather than cottony. It holds large bubbles well but tears if pushed, which is why the stretch happens in two stages. The oil in the dough shortens that gluten just enough to keep the bite tender, and the oil under the dough fries the base into a separate crisp layer. The tomato adds nothing structural and threatens everything: it is 94 percent water.

Moisture therefore has to travel in two directions. Downward, you want water to leave the topping fast, which is why the tomato is drained, scattered in patches and hit with high radiant heat that evaporates surface liquid before it soaks in. Upward, you want water to stay inside the crumb, which the high hydration and the quickly set crust achieve together. Salt on the surface draws a little water from the tomato in the first minutes, where the heat can take it away.

Resting is the last control. Straight from the oven the focaccia holds steam under pressure, and if you stack or wrap it hot the crust turns to leather. Never refrigerate it: between 34 and 45°F (1 and 7°C) starch retrogradation runs fastest and the bread stales in hours.

Professional Mise en Place

This is a two day job organised around waiting. The hands on time is under 30 minutes, but those minutes must land at the right moments.

Equipment and tools

Digital scale accurate to 1 g and an instant read thermometer
Wide, low bowl of at least 4 quarts (4 litres) for the coil folds
Baking steel or refractory stone, plus a sheet pan for transfer
Fine sieve, bench scraper, wire rack and a serrated knife

Prepared ahead

Refresh the lievito madre 4 hours before mixing and use it just after it has doubled
Weigh the semolina, salt and both portions of water before starting
Crush and drain the tomatoes up to 3 hours ahead, covered in the refrigerator
Start the oven and slab 45 to 60 minutes before the bake

Service setup

Clear the wire rack before the focaccia comes out, since the transfer must happen within seconds
Warm the serving board slightly, because a cold board dulls the base
Cut only what you will serve and keep the rest whole, cut side down

Chef Tips

Replace 10 percent of the semola with a coarser, not remilled, durum semolina for a sandy bite. Several Materan bakeries do this, and it stays invisible until you chew.
Out of season, reduce good passata by a third in a pan with a little oil and cool it completely. Never use it straight from the bottle, which is far too wet for this bake.
Add half the oregano before baking and half in the last two minutes under the grill. The first half perfumes the tomato, while the second stays green instead of turning dusty and bitter.
Wet your hands during mixing and folding rather than flouring them. Extra flour on a semolina dough never fully hydrates and shows as pale streaks in the baked crumb.

Common Mistakes

Skipping the autolyse. Coarse durum needs 40 minutes with water. A dough mixed straight through feels stiff, gets kneaded too hard and ends up dense with a torn gluten network.

Forcing the dough to the corners in one pass. The gluten is still tense, so pushing tears it and squeezes out the gas. Press to two thirds, wait 20 minutes, and it reaches the corners by itself.

Spreading undrained tomato as an even layer. A continuous wet sheet steams the surface instead of roasting it, and the focaccia turns soggy within ten minutes. Drain it, scatter it in patches and leave bare dough between them.

Leaving the focaccia on the hot steel to cool. The base sits in its own steam and the crust built in ten minutes softens in five. Lift it onto a rack at once, even if you are serving immediately, so air reaches the underside.

Baking in a modest oven. At 400°F (200°C) on a cold tray the surface never sets fast enough, the tomato stews and the result is a pale, bready rectangle. Preheat the slab for the full time and trust the heat.

Wine Pairing

Matera Greco DOC: The answer from the same fifteen kilometres of land. It is savoury rather than fruity, with a chalky, almost saline finish and enough acidity to cut the olive oil in the base. Its faint bitter almond note runs beside the oregano, and its weight without oak respects a bread built on restraint. Serve at 50°F (10°C).

Malvasia Bianca di Basilicata IGT: A rounder, more aromatic dry white. White peach and dried herb notes echo the oregano, while a soft texture sits comfortably against the chew of the durum crumb. It suits the onion version best, where the sweetness of the softened onion wants perfume rather than pure minerality, and the wine finishes dry and clean despite its aromatic opening.

Grottino di Roccanova Bianco DOC: The leaner alternative. High altitude fruit gives tight acidity, citrus peel rather than stone fruit and a clean finish that resets the palate between pieces. It is the one to pour when olives are on top and the salt level is high. Serve it at 48 to 50°F (9 to 10°C), and expect a saline echo of the coarse salt on the crust.

Aglianico del Vulture Superiore DOCG: For focaccia served beside cured meats and aged cheese, move to red. Its firm, fine grained tannin softens against fat and salt, and the volcanic soils give a smoky edge that finds the caramelised tomato and toasted crust. Its acidity keeps the oil from feeling heavy. Decant 30 minutes and serve at 61°F (16°C).

Storage & Reheating

Keep the focaccia at room temperature, cut side down on a board under a linen cloth, for up to 2 days. Never store it in the refrigerator. To revive it, set pieces directly on a hot oven rack at 390°F (200°C) for 4 to 5 minutes, or in a dry cast iron pan base down over medium heat for 3 minutes, with a lid for the last minute. Never use a microwave, which leaves a texture like damp cardboard.

For the freezer, cool completely, wrap portions tightly in parchment and then in a freezer bag, and freeze up to 2 months. Reheat from frozen at 355°F (180°C) for 10 to 12 minutes without thawing. The best make ahead route is the dough: hold it at 39°F (4°C) for up to 18 hours, bring it to room temperature for 90 minutes, then dress and bake.