No wonder, practically all of my friends love to cook, otherwise they wouldn't be my friends. ;)
You might remember Claudio as the author of my favourite spritz cocktail. He's also a great cook who loves to reproduce the dishes of his birth region, Puglia. He's a Barese (native of Bari), to be precise, and it's funny that we grew up in the same city having common friends but we never met until a lot later, when we were both already living in Amsterdam.
In Bari we grew up with the typical focaccia with tomatoes that every school kid in Bari eats when coming out of school, hungry like a wolf. Some of the best panifici (bakeries) in town are strategically placed close to schools and I guess that's not by chance: the quantity of focaccia sold to young students is MASSIVE.
We had already been experimenting with focaccia al pomodoro twice, with growing satisfaction but not completely happy about the end results. A few days ago we gave it another try with a recipe from the book "Pane, pizze e focacce" written by Laura Ginapri changing only the type of flour used (half durum wheat and half "00" type instead of 100% "00" flour as in the original recipe) and the result really made us happy. Worth an immediate "memory lane" flash.
You can see the product of our efforts here in my newest video. Long-time French friend Pascal helped Claudio in preparing the focaccia. We actually made two types of focaccia, one of which - the one Pascal worked at more intensively, with a mashed potato in it, a common ingredient in Bari's home-made focaccia's - ended up in a bit of a drama, as you can see on the right. Very tasty but still a sticky drama.
So from now on we prefer to stick to this one, an AMAZINGLY tasty focaccia with crunchy bits (usually the sides) and a softer center.
Make sure you spread the dough quite thinly in the oven dish, it's important that it doesn't get too thick.
All in all this focaccia comes out quite crunchy thanks to the abundant use of olive oil, something that characterizes the Apulian cuisine (just look at my Mom's tiella!).
Focaccia al pomodoro barese
Ingredients:
200 gr. / 7 oz durum wheat flour
200 gr. / 7 oz type "00" flour
25 gr. / 0.8 oz. fresh brewer's yeast
300 ml/10.14 fl. oz lukewarm water
2 teaspoons of sea salt
1 tablespoon of milk
a can of good quality peeled tomatoes (we used Mutti)
a handful of black olives
dried oregano
salt
coarse sea salt
extra virgin olive oil
Mix the two types of flour in a big bowl.
Dilute the yeast completely in part of the lukewarm water and add it to the two flours mixing well. After a while - wait for about 4-5 minutes so that the yeast can do its work properly, salt inhibits its effects - add the salt, also diluted, and then the rest of the water. Mix and add the milk, mixing a bit further.
The dough has to be very soft and sticky.
Cover it with plastic foil and leave to raise for about an hour on a warm place.
Chop the canned tomatoes coarsely.
Spread the dough on a well-oiled oven dish (grease your fingers too to avoid sticking) and spread the chopped tomatoes on top of it.
Add the olives and season with oregano, a bit of coarse sea salt and plenty of olive oil.
Put in the pre-heated oven at 200°C /392°F for about 30-35 minutes and bake until golden brown.
Focaccia barese with tomato from Nicoletta Tavella on Vimeo.
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