In Puglia, one of most beautiful Italian regions, they prepare their focaccias with cherry tomatoes!!!
ingredients for 4 small round focaccias (cost about 1 Euros each with organic flours)
- 300 g soft wheat flour
- 200 ml mineral water
- 5 g salt
- 5 g sugar
- 2 g dried yeast
- at least 100 ml EV olive oil for drizzling
- Dried oregano
- 30 tiny cherry tomatoes
There are many versions of focaccia all over Italy. One of the most interesting is that from Bari, Puglia’s capital, which is also contains cherry tomatoes.
Some cooks add already cooked potatoes in the dough but I present you a simpler and faster version, thinking that the addition of tomatoes and herbs enriches enough the dough. I wanna tell you that the use of potato is not strange in bread making. The Italian master Niko Romito, one of the best chefs in the world, prepares his famous bread with potato.
First of all we put the oregano in some spoonsful of water, in order to rehydrate it and make it more resistant to high heat.
We sift the flour and we stir them with the yeast and the sugar. We add the water and the salt and we start kneading the dough by hand, or we put all the ingredients in a mixer bowl.
We knead in the stand mixer fitted with the hook attachment for 6 minutes in low speed and 6 more in medium. If we prefer the manual kneading the total time must be around 15 to20 mins. We finish when our dough is very soft and elastic. We cover the bowl with film and we wait for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the room temperature and having in mind that, ideally, this should be around 23 Celsius degrees.
After the first quick rising, we cut the dough in 4 equal pieces. We start folding each dough piece for 1-2 minutes, trying to enclose ad much air as it is possible in them. We let them rest and mature for about 2 hours covered with a dump towel.
We spread the dough in four well greased small pans of about 20 cm diameter. If you don´t have small pans you can prepare your focaccia on a baking sheet. We flatten the dough by hand, making “wholes” with our fingers and trying to cover all the surface of the pans.
We dip the cherry tomatoes into the dough pressing them slightly. We drizzle with abundant oil and we sprinkle with the strained oregano. We let the small focaccias to rest for 40 minutes.
Many bakers in Puglia add also olives in their focaccias. When I last visited Bari I passed from the Fiore Bakery in Bari and the Santa Chiara Bakery in Altamura in order to taste their famous focaccias. By the way Fiore’s focaccia was clearly better. Both bakers add some whole olives in the dough.
Although, I am an passionate olive lover I didn’t like the olives in the focaccias. Focaccias are often eaten in rush, with large bites, they are not a dish of pasta, which we eat it seated in a restaurant with a fork. The presence of olives provoked me fear, as I didn’t want to swallow a whole olive, so instead of relaxing and eat my focaccia in a ………… minute, I was obliged to check it visually every time I wanted to bite. But, this is just my personal opinion, I repeat that Fiore’s focaccia was magnificent.
Meanwhile, we preheat the oven to 250 C degrees. We bake for 6 to 10 minutes, depending on the oven and our taste. The original focaccia Barese has a crunchy crust, I personally prefer it a little bit softer.
We wait for the focaccias to cool completely and we eat them immediately or we store them in an airtight package for a few hours. Focaccia must be eaten the same day.
