Have you tried focaccia before? The chewy Italian bread is almost a cross between a thick pizza crust and a crusty French bread. And it’s dimpled all over the top with indents that act as little pools for olive oil. Mmmmmm.
I’ll admit: A good focaccia recipe takes time to craft. You’ll need to create a starter dough, or biga, the night before you plan on making the dough. And the bread will need a couple rounds of rising. But none of the steps are difficult; you just need a little patience.
Sure, there are plenty of recipes with shortcuts – some even call for using pizza dough in place of the spongy focaccia bread. But I promise the effort is worth it.
You’ll want to serve the focaccia hot from the oven. I try to only use half of the bread the first night. And with the leftovers, I make Italian sandwiches the next night using slices of ham, salami, pepperoncini (also called banana peppers), tomato, lettuce and mayo mixed with a little pesto (you could also use Italian salad dressing). See: So at least if you go to all the effort of making focaccia, you should have enough for a couple meals – that’s if your family doesn’t dig in and eat it all the first night!
