Focaccia

Not pizza, but the same dough family and the best place to learn wet dough. Genovese is thin, dimpled and finished with a salt brine that pools in the holes. Barese adds boiled potato and semolina and comes out softer, with tomatoes pressed into the top.

Method

1. Mix flour and water, rest 30 minutes, then add salt, yeast and oil.
2. Four sets of stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart.
3. Pour into a heavily oiled pan and coax to the edges. If it springs back, wait 20 minutes and try again.
4. Proof until puffed, then dimple hard with flat fingers, all the way to the bottom.
5. Genovese: whisk 3 parts water, 2 parts oil, a big pinch of salt, and pour it over so it sits in the dimples.
6. Bake until deep gold. Brush with more oil straight out of the oven.

Fermentation

Times are a guide. How to read the dough instead of the clock →

The bake

On top

Sauce

None.

Cheese

None, traditionally.

Toppings

Rosemary and coarse salt, olives, cherry tomatoes, thin onion.

You got it right when A wet, glossy top, a fried bottom, and holes that hold the brine.