Focaccia, Apulia-style

Recipe for focaccia, Apulia-style

Preparation

• - To optimize the leavening make a double rising.
  Take a bowl and stir in all-purpose flour and emmer sourdough.
  Mix well.
  Pour in about 100ml of warm water and mix all ingredients until a soft dough.
• - Cover with a napkin and let it rise for about an hour in a warm place.
• - Meanwhile steam the potato you'll use later.
• - Let cool and pass it through the mill.
• - Pour in emmer flour on a work surface making a large well in the center.
• - Put mashed potato, salt, 3 tablespoons olive oil and your risen dough in the well.
• - Pour in about 150 ml of warm water, little at a time, and dissolve the leavened dough to form a homogeneous mixture.
• - Begin mixing the flour around the well with the mixture and work until a soft dough.
• - Make a ball and sprinkle with all-purpose flour.
  Put aside.
• - Meanwhile prepare focaccia topping.
• - Open your tomato can and remove cherry tomatoes from their preserving liquid.
• - Combine one tablespoon of preserving liquid and 1 tablespoon olive oil.
  Add chives too.
  Season to taste with salt and stir vigorously.
• - Grease with the remaining olive oil a deep baking dish, 35 centimeters in diameter.
• - Take again your dough and lay it in the baking dish.
• - Spoon the tomato-and-olive-oil mixture on its surface.
• - Arrange the cherry tomatoes on its surface pressing their top with delicacy.
• - Put the dish in a warm place to make your dough rise again.
  You'll need about 2 hours or more, it depends on the temperature.
  If your home temperature isn't enough to make a good rising, an oven with just the pilot light or oven light turned can work well as does a high shelf or a food dehydrator with low temperature setting. 

Cooking

• - Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F)
• - Bake for about 25 minutes.
• - Then turn over your focaccia to complete its cooking on the bottom too.
  It will take 5 more minutes.

Just before serving

• - Serve your Apulian focaccia, warm or cold, sliced.

Note

Tips

• - If you are not used to emmer flour you can use all-purpose flour only. I think you have to modify water amount. So my tip is to add water little at a time.
  But get used to replace wheat flour with wholemeal flour in time. It 'a matter of health!
  
• - About water .. another tip. Its amount is quite variable as it depends on many factors: flour, weather, humidity in your home ... I always smile reading the many recipes that give strict doses especially when you work your flour. You can never know in advance how much water you really need. So my advice is to add it a little at a time. Only experience will teach you to understand well the correct consistency of the dough under your hands.
• - You can use oregano, if liked, instead of chives.
• - Double rising is essential in bread or pizza or focaccia making. You'll use less yeast, with taste-and-health enhancing. You'll need more time but with best results. You can not have everything in a hurry especially tasty food.
• - I looked for the dried emmer sourdough I usually use in Italy in the shops in Internet. Here's an example.
  If you can't find it don't worry. You can use fresh yeast but remember to make a double rising. So you can use only 12g. Your dough should not have the typical flavor of fresh yeast!
• - Notice to lovers of Apulian focaccia: precisely because it is calorie you do not expect that my focaccia has a very greasy surface. This would result in an additional burden of calories and fat. However, the choice is yours. Know that each additional tablespoon of olive oil on its surface means 90 extra calories and 10g of additional fat.

Menu planning

• - But how to serve this tasty focaccia, Apulia-style? According to Carlo and me it is a nice accompaniment to mozzarella cheese, tuna in oil, raw ham, caponata. Tasty snack TV or your Sunday brunch. What about it?
  However ... don't make it too often .. it's calorie ;))))

Useful links for this recipe

• - Interested in the authentic recipe for focaccia from Apulia?

Healthy eating

• - My focaccia, Apulian-style has a high content of calories due more to olive oil than flour ... and you have to know I'm pretty careful with olive oil. Imagine how many calories in the authentic Apulian focaccia!
  So this is a dish you can't prepare frequently, especially if you follow my suggestions for the menu ;)
  But once in a while ... that's why it is always a party when I prepare it at home!
• - My choice of using emmer flour is linked to the extraordinary properties of this flour. It is well-tolerated, highly digestible, rich in fiber and reduces the glycemic index and has also a superior flavor to the whole wheat flour because its flavor doesn't remember bran. For all these reasons I normally use emmer flour for cakes, bread and pasta dough.

Loretta

What's the right wine ?

Carlo and I suggest you to pair a good beer or a glass of red young wine to this Italian focaccia.