Back on track...with a tasty Focaccia Barese

Hello everybody,

I am aware that I haven't been posting at all since beginning of the year.

I had somehow lost the energy I wanted to put in this blog and since I always give my best in the things I do, I didn't want to write a blog without putting my 100% energy in it.

Since then, my friends, family and partner have encouraged me to keep my posts up and after a long time I feel I want to start blogging again, and keep sharing a piece of my life with you.

Let's start with the past weekend (the weekend of "Ferragosto").... The 15 of August is a big Bank Holiday in Spain and in Italy, and many people have been organising their weekend out and enjoy few days at the beach or countryside. We have rented a nice place in Costa de la Luz and planned to spend the weekend on the beach with few of our friends....

Everything we've done that week end hasn't happened the way we planned it!

Thw wind was so strong we almost got blown away from the beach...


From Pinterest

But we had so much fun! We couldn't play beach volley {and almost lost the ball} since the wind wouldn't allow it, but we ate tons of food and I had the chance to take many beautiful pictures.

playa de los alemanes - Zahara de los Atunes

We all cooked something to bring with us on the beach. We had pasta salad, sausage rolls and my tasty Focaccia Barese!

The Focaccia Barese is the best Focaccia you will ever taste in Puglia, my hometown region - people from Bari also cut the focaccia bread in half and eat it with mortadella and cheese: the result is spectacular!

::Recipe and Proceedings::

Focaccia
500 gr Flour 00
200 gr Strong Flour
500 gr Water
40 gr EVO oil
1 tea spoon of Sugar
30 gr of salt
100 gr boiled potato
1 cube of Yeast

Topping
15 cherry tomatoes
oregano
EVO oil
Salt
black olives


We need to mix the "liquid" ingredients first and then add the "solid" ones.

In a bowl, pour  the water, the yeast (previously melted in some water), the boiled potato and the olive oil. In order to melt the yeast just pour some warm water on it in a glass and mix it with a spoon (1). The potato has to be smashed before pouring it in the bowl (2).

melting the yeast

smashing the boiled potato

After you've mixed the liquid ingredients you can pour the flour, sugar and salt. Mix everything together until the compost has blended together perfectly. Please note that the texture of the focaccia dough is different from the pizza one. The focaccia dough contains more water and therefore the dough is not solid - it should be watery, but it shouldn't form a proper ball (3).

ready to rest for 2 hours

Let the dough rest for 2 hours - cover it with a tea towel and a heavy blanket ( I used a beach towel) (4 -5) to keep it warm!

tea towel

beach towel

Spread olive oil in a baking pan - loooots of olive oil! - pour the dough in the pan and spread it with your hands (6 - 7). Add the condiments: cherry tomatos cut in half, oregan, salt, olives and a bit of olive oil (8).

olive oil in the pan

waiting for its topping

almost ready for the oven

Suggestion: you can mix the cherry tomatoes in olive oil already and then place them on the focaccia. This will make a good mixture of olive oil and tomato sauce to put on top of the focaccia before it goes in the oven(9).

suggestion for topping

Let the focaccia rest for 45 minutes (so it can rise a bit more) and switch the oven at 200°.

Put the baking pan in the oven for 30 minutes.

Let the Focaccia cool down and cut a slice....ENJOY!

Special thank's to my friend Barbara for the tips she has given me :)

Until next time,
Daniela