Genoese focaccia

Genoese focaccia, fugassa in the local dialect, is about one centimetre thick, golden, with the typical dimples pressed in by fingers. Its secret is the brine: an emulsion of water, extra virgin olive oil and salt poured over before the last rise, which pools in the dimples in the oven. In Genoa it is eaten at any hour, breakfast included. Bakers give it a long rise; this is a version for a home oven that you can make in a morning.

Ingredients for a 30×40 cm tray

• 500 g strong 00 flour (bread flour)
• 300 g water at room temperature
• 10 g fresh yeast
• 1 teaspoon barley malt (or sugar)
• 10 g fine salt
• About 100 g IL CONTE Blend in all: 30 g in the dough, 30 g for the tray, the rest for the brine
• For the brine: 40 g water, 30 g oil, 5 g fine salt
• Coarse salt

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast and malt in the water. Mix in the flour, then add the salt and 30 g of oil and knead for about ten minutes, until smooth and elastic.
2. Cover and leave to rise somewhere warm until doubled, about an hour and a half.
3. Oil the tray with 30 g of oil and stretch the dough out by hand. If it springs back, let it rest for a quarter of an hour and try again. Cover and leave to rise for about another hour.
4. Whisk the water, oil and salt for the brine into an emulsion. Press your fingertips into the dough right down to the tray, in close rows, to make the dimples. Pour over the brine, scatter a pinch of coarse salt and leave to rise one last time, for an hour and a half to two hours.
5. Bake in an oven preheated to 230 °C, on the lower shelf, for 18–20 minutes, until golden. Brush with a little oil as soon as it comes out. It is best warm, on the day it is made.

The right oil

In focaccia the oil is everywhere: in the dough, in the tray, in the brine. It needs a generous but not overpowering extra virgin olive oil, like our Blend; if you make it often, the tin is the better buy.

Photo: Alessio Sbarbaro, Wikimedia Commons, licence CC BY-SA 3.0.