I’ve made this over two hundred times. I could probably do it blindfolded if you put everything out in front of me. I don’t think there’s an easier bread to make. I also don’t think there’s a better tasting focaccia recipe.

This is my third recipe with Villa Graziella, I was lucky enough to get their newest batch of olive oil this week so I got to use that as well as their amazing vegetable herb mix.

I used weights to measure everything, I always find a scale more reliable than a cup when it comes to baking, but these weights are easy to google and convert.

This takes no more than ten minutes of actual work, so it will be the easiest bake you’ll ever make.

Focaccia


five hundred and twenty grams of all purpose flour

twelve grams of salt, plus more for sprinkling over

ten grams of sugar

ten grams of yeast

two cups of lukewarm water (one cup of hot plus one cup of cool)

six tablespoons of Villa Graziella Extra Virgin Olive Oil

two teaspoons Villa Graziella herb vegetable seasoning mix

butter for greasing

In a bowl, sift and mix the flour and salt together.

In a liquid measuring cup or a bowl, mix the warm water and sugar together until dissolved. Add in your yeast, mix slowly for about ten seconds, then let rest and bubble for ten minutes.

Make a well in the flour bowl, slowly pour in the yeast water mixture, mixing with a spoon or spatula.

Fold everything together and make sure everything has worked together so there aren’t any lumps of flour in the dough. The dough should form a sticky ball.

Pour one tablespoon of oil to over the dough and rub it over so the outside is fully covered.

Cover the bowl with a wet towel and place in the fridge for at least twelve hours, preferably twenty four.

The next day, butter a pan and the drizzle the bottom of the pan with two tablespoons of olive oil.

I used a nine inch wide and three inch tall cast iron skillet. I highly recommend cast iron for this, but any baking dish will do as long as it isn’t glass. Bake times will change with the size of the pan, the bigger the pan the shorter the time and vice versa.

Remove your dough from the fridge and pulling it from the sides, place into your buttered pan. Allow to rest and rise, doubling in size, for two to four hours depending on your room temperature. Keep the pan near the oven to provide it with a little extra warmth as the over warms up. I found that three hours is the sweet spot.

An hour before baking, preheat your oven to four hundred and twenty five degrees.

With your dough doubled in size, drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil over the dough and dimple the dough down with your fingertips to spread it to the edges of the pan.

Bake for thirty minutes, turning the pan at fifteen minutes, it should be golden brown.

Remove from the oven and brush the bread with two tablespoons of olive oil, sprinkle some sea salt and the seasoning mix over, and allow to rest in the pan for ten minutes. After ten minutes transfer the bread to a drying rack for at least forty more minutes until it has cooled down.

Slice, serve, enjoy. Dip it in some olive oil, even better some olive oil and Romano cheese, or make it into a sandwich, or just eat the entire loaf at 3am like my father did last night. Do whatever your heart desires.