Focaccia con Olive
Liguria's best-loved bread: focaccia made with plenty of olive oil and olives, soft within and crisp without.
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Serves
- 6
- Level
- Medium
- Cuisine
- Italian
Focaccia takes its name from the Latin panis focacius: bread baked on the hearth (focus = hearth). This is the bread of the fire rather than the oven — a dough that travelled from Rome to Liguria and from there across the whole Mediterranean.
Olive oil does two separate jobs here, and neither is optional: the oil in the dough softens the gluten network and leaves the crumb open, while the oil on top fries the surface as it bakes and gives that characteristic glossy, faintly crisp crust. A focaccia made with reduced oil is bread, but it is not focaccia.
Directions
- Mix the flour, yeast and salt. Add the warm water and 3 tablespoons of olive oil and knead to a smooth dough.
- Cover and leave to rise for 1 hour.
- Heat the oven to 220°C. Spread the dough into an oiled baking tray.
- Press dimples into the dough with your fingers. Drizzle over the remaining olive oil.
- Press the olives into the dimples. Scatter over the rosemary leaves and the coarse salt.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden. Serve warm.
Tips & storage
The dimples are not decoration. Pressed with the fingers, they hold the olive oil and stop the dough doming up in the middle. Oil your fingertips and press all the way to the base; shallow dimples close up during baking.
The dough should be sticky. Focaccia needs high hydration. Add flour to make it easy to handle and the crumb comes out tight and dry. Oil your hands instead; do not add flour.
Press the olives in, don't scatter them. Olives left on the surface roll off during baking and scorch underneath. They belong pressed into the dough.
Let the oven really reach 220°C. At a lower temperature focaccia dries out; high heat browns the outside fast and leaves the inside moist.
Salt on top, before baking. Coarse sea salt does not dissolve in the oven and creates a distinct point of flavour on the plate — it is not the same as fine salt.
Storage. Best the same day. The next day, five minutes in a 180°C oven brings the crust back; a microwave turns it to dough.
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