Side Italian

Focaccia with onion and anchovies

Name: Focaccia with onion and anchovies recipe
Yield: 2 medium focaccia
Cuisine: /italian
Ingredients: 200g tipo ‘00’ flour; 200g baker’s flour; 1 1/2 tsp dry yeast; 1 3/4 tsp fine salt; 40.00 ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra, to prove; 350ml tepid water (see notes); 1 red onion, thinly sliced; 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra, to serve; 50g anchovies in oil; 20.00 ml finely chopped fresh rosemary, thyme or oregano (see notes)

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2 medium focaccia

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by delicious. team

delicious. team

Mar 25, 2024

Italian chef, baker and teacher Carla Tomasi has an encyclopedic knowledge of food. A trailblazer of London’s Soho in the 1980s at her restaurant Frith’s, she later moved back to Rome, establishing an extraordinary kitchen garden in Ostia Antica. She has been dubbed ‘the vegetable whisperer’.

200g tipo ‘00’ flour
200g baker’s flour
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 3/4 tsp fine salt
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil, plus extra, to prove
350ml tepid water (see notes)

TOPPING

1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra, to serve
50g anchovies in oil
1 tbs finely chopped fresh rosemary, thyme or oregano (see notes)

Method

1.

Place flours, yeast and salt in a large bowl and mix to combine. Drizzle 1 tbs oil, then pour in the water. Plunge one hand in and use it as if it were a dough hook (or use a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook). As you go around the bowl, gather flour from the side towards the centre.
2.

Once all the flour has been incorporated, pat into a shaggy mass, cover with a cloth and leave to rest for at least 15 minutes. The dough will be very loose and sticky.
3.

When resting time is over, dough will feel soft and pliable. Pour the remaining 1 tbs oil around the edges of the bowl and onto hands; this will make the dough easier to handle. Pour a little extra oil on a benchtop and place the dough on it. Flatten it out gently, then begin pulling the dough from the edge towards the centre, each time giving it a quarter turn. Pull the dough four times. Upturn the mixing bowl over the dough and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
4.

Repeat pulling process once more. If you mixed your dough in a stand mixer, it doesn’t need turning as much, but it does still add lovely air pockets to the dough.
5.

If you’re planning to use the dough the next day, at this point, you can let the dough rise overnight in the fridge. Or, if it’s a very hot day and you won’t be using the dough for several hours, you can leave it in the fridge.
6.

Gather the dough into a ball, place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover well with a damp clean cloth or plastic wrap, and leave to rest until it has doubled in size. This should take about 45 minutes, but how quickly the dough rises will depend on the temperature of your kitchen. In winter, we often leave dough to rise on a heater or in the kitchen with the oven open.
7.

Meanwhile, place the sliced onion in a medium bowl and cover with water. Set aside while dough proves.
8.

When dough is ready, ease it out of the bowl, pull the ‘corners’ of the dough once more and gather into a ball. Split the dough into two pieces, lightly oil two baking trays and gently transfer the dough onto trays.
9.

Leave the dough to rest for 15-30 minutes until it has relaxed. To test if the dough is ready, use your fingers to pull the dough across trays to roughly 22cm rounds each; if it stays happily stretched out, it’s ready. If it keeps springing back, leave to rest for another 15 minutes.
10.

Once the dough has been spread out, leave it to rise (preferably uncovered) well away from cold draughts or direct heat. (If the day is very hot, you may need to cover it.) It can take 15-30 minutes. When the dough is well puffed up, gently dimple the surface with your fingers and drizzle over a little more oil.
11.

Preheat oven to 210°C/190°C fan-forced.
12.

For the topping, drain the sliced onion, squeezing excess water out, and mix with the oil and a pinch of salt flakes. Press deeply into stretched focaccia dough. Bake for 20-25 minutes, swapping trays around on shelves at least once during baking. Remove from oven and immediately add anchovies and herbs, then a little drizzle of oil and salt flakes to season.

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Recipe Notes

“We use dry yeast, which in Italy is available in small sachets which guarantee freshness. We skip the ‘sponge’ step – mixing a little of the flour, yeast and tepid water together and waiting for it to bubble and froth – because the yeast is so reliable. If you’re using dry (or fresh) yeast that you’re not 100 percent sure about, take 50g of the flour from the recipe, the yeast and the tepid water and mix together. In 15 minutes it should be frothy and bubbling and you can proceed with the recipe, adding this ‘sponge’ to the other ingredients.” – Carla Tomasi.

Begin this recipe at least 3 hours ahead.

On a very cold day, the water temperature should be on the warm side of tepid. Measure the full amount of water, but never add it all at once, as there are many variants (flour quality, heat, humidity, etc.) that affect the ability of flour to absorb liquid. Less refined flours may need a little extra liquid. Avoid baking the focaccia with herbs strewn on the surface, especially rosemary. The essential oil within the herb will turn bitter in the strong heat. The best way to add rosemary is to roughly chop and shower the focaccia along with salt flakes as soon as the focaccia is out of the oven.