Focaccia is a popular Italian flat bread that’s dimpled and topped with olive oil and herbs. It’s quite versatile because changing herbs will change the flavor of the bread, making it highly adaptable from meal to meal. It can be topped with sage, rosemary, course sea salt, onions, garlic or olives. I topped mine with ... [read more]]]> Focaccia is a popular Italian flat bread that’s dimpled and topped with olive oil and herbs. It’s quite versatile because changing herbs will change the flavor of the bread, making it highly adaptable from meal to meal. It can be topped with sage, rosemary, course sea salt, onions, garlic or olives. I topped mine with olive oil, some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and Greek seasoning. The inside of the dough was filled with diced garlic and basil. Talk about mouth-watering!

It was absolutely scrumptious, and it was also the perfect accompaniment to our antipasto.

The recipe in the book doesn’t call for any yogurt to be added to the dough, although for this batch of focaccia, I did add some. There are days; however, that I make it without yogurt. I like it both ways, so if you don’t have any on-hand, don’t worry…just make your focaccia without it.

Here’s a couple of pictures of a batch of focaccia that I made without yogurt. I kneaded finely chopped fresh basil and freshly grated Parmesan cheese into the dough. Then I brushed the top of the bread with olive oil and added very thin slices of onions and cherry tomatoes. Doesn’t matter that the tomatoes are “oven-dried” instead of “sun-dried.” They still taste totally delicious!!

I love how versatile this recipe is and how the same basic dough can taste so different depending on what kind of herbs and veggies are used. Give it a try sometime. It goes perfect with pasta and makes great sandwich bread.

Focaccia Bread (Adapted from:
“Bread: the breads of the world and how to bake them at home” by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter. See page 174 for the their focaccia bread recipe)