My Very First Focaccia

Another Saturday begins with a slightly fuzzy head from the night before and thought of baking. I have already lost my fight with my conscience to go to the gym and have consigned myself to a day of baking instead!! A much better idea.

So, I've been meaning to make bread for ages, I tried a loaf not long after I moved into my little fairy cottage. It didn't turn out very well, it was dry and hard so I am hoping todays recipe will be much better. I am trying a Focaccia with onions, Genoese style from Marcella Hazan's 'The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking' and am parying my little oven doesn't incinerate my efforts!!

The Recipe - Focaccia With Onions, Genoese Style from Marcella Hazan's 'The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking'

For the dough

1 packet of active dry yeast

500 ml lukewarm water

750g plain unbleached flour

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 tbsp salt

For baking the Focaccia

a baking stone

a heavy-duty rectangular metal baking sheet, preferably black about 35 x 45cm

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil for smearing the pan

a mixture of 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp water and 1 tbsp salt

For the onion topping

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 large or 3 medium onions sliced very, very thinly.

The Method

1. Dissolve the yeast, stirring it into 100 ml of lukewarm water, letting stand for about 10 minutes or slightly less.
2. Combine the yeast and 110g of the flour in a bowl, mixing thoroughly. Then add the olive oil, salt, half the remaining water (200 ml), and half of the remaining flour. Mix thoroughly until the dough feels soft, but compact, and no longer sticks to the hands. Put in most of the remaining flour and water and mix thoroughly once again - you need to hold back some of both and put in as much of either as you need to make the dough manageable, soft, but not too sticky.
3. Take the dough out of the bowl and slap it down very hard several times, until it is stretched out lengthwise. Reach for the far end of the dough, fold it a short distance towards you, push it away with the heel of your palm, flexing your wrist, fold it and push it away again, gradually rolling it up and brining it close to you. It will have a tapered, roll-like shape. Pick up the dough,holding it by one of the tapered ends, lift it high above the counter, and slap it down hard again several times, stretching it out in a lengthwise direction. Reach for the far end and repeat the kneading motion with the heel of your palm and your wrist, bringing close to you once more. Work the dough in this manner for 10 minutes. In the end pat it into a round shape.
4. Smear the centre of a baking sheet with 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, put the kneaded round dough on it, cover with a damp cloth and leav to rise for about 1 1/2 hours.
5. Put 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil and the sliced onions in a saute pan, turn the heat to medium-high, and cook the onion, stirring frequently, until it is tener but not too soft. It should still be slightly crunchy.
6. When the indicated rising time has elapsed, stretch out the dough on the baking sheet spreading it out to the edges of the baking sheet so it covers the entire sheet at a thickness of about 1/2cm. Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise for a further 45 minutes.
7. At least 30 minutes before you are ready to bake put the baking stone in the oven and preheat it to 230 degrees.
8. When the second rising time for the dough has elapsed and you are ready to bake, keeping the fingers of your hand stiff, poke the dough all over making little hollows with your finger tips. Beat the mixture of olive oil, water and salt for a few minutes to form an emulsion, then pour it slowly over the dough using a brush to spread it all of the way to the edges of the pan You will find the liquid polls in the hollows made by your fingers, spread the cooked onions over the dough and place sheet in the centre of the pre-heated over. Check the focaccia after 15 minutes. If you find it cooking on one side faster than the other, turn the pan round. Bake for another 7 to 8 minutes, lift the focaccia out of the pan using spatulas and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
9. Serve the focaccia warm or at room temperature

This recipe was remarkably easy to make, a little time consuming but perfect for a weekend where are you are pottering around doing other things. It looked beautiful and a real rustic centre piece for the table. Light and fluffy bread with a salty crisp toping and crunchy onions. A total success hurrah, even in my little oven. One to make again for sure.

The recipe goes on to state that the focaccia is best eaten on day of cooking or frozen until you are ready to eat it.

A Different Kind of Bolognese

Normally when cooking a bolognese sauce I do the simple recipe my mum taught me using tinned tomatoes, mince meat and vegetables. Tonight I tried doing Marcella Hazan's Bolognese from her book 'The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking'; I've been going through a fad of cooking Italian food and I purchased this book in aid of making an Italian meal for my friends, I really like her anecdotes at the start of the recipes and the tips and tricks on doing things better.

Bolognese Meat Sauce by Marcella Hazan (The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking)

The Recipe

2 tbsp vegetable Oil

45g butter

85g onion, chopped

3 sticks celery, chopped

4 medium carrots

350g ground beef chuck (i used minced lamb, I prefer the flavour)

250ml full-fat milk

whole nutmeg

250ml dry white wine

500g tinned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up with their juice

The Method

1. Put the oil, butter and chopped onion in a pot, turn the heat to medium and saute the onion until it becomes translucent. Add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring the vegetables to coat them well.
2. Add the ground beef, a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper. Crumble the beef with a fork, stir well and cook until it has lost its red colour.
3. Add the milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating - about an 1/8 tsp of nutmeg and stir.
4. Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated, and then add them tomatoes and stir thoroughly to coat all of then ingredients well. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through the surface. Cook uncovered for 3 hours or more stirring from time to time. Whilst the sauce is cooking you are likely to find that it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, continue cooking adding 125ml water whenever necessary. At the end, however no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt.

I have to admit I have never cooked a sauce for over 3 hours before, so this was a first, when I started writing the post I was hoping all this time would bring a very satisfying result and as luck would have it the wait was worth it, the resulting sauce was sweet, delicious and will no doubt be made again soon. I have always wondered how to get the bolognese sweet without an acidic taste from the tomatoes and it turns out that's what the milk does, cuts down the acidity and the sheer length of cooking time aids in the sweetness of the sauce.

What also surprised me about this recipe was the lack of garlic - I put garlic in pretty much every thing and was extremely surprised to not see it in this recipe, the lack of garlic did not upset the beautiful flavour of this dish.