If you’ve got flour, yeast, olive oil, and salt, then you’ve got focaccia! But there’s no reason not to add a little something extra to it. This recipe has you covered, whether you want to bake a sheet of focaccia with toppings or take it easy with a plain sheet.
Half a jar of pesto? Swirl it in! Frozen veggies languishing in the freezer? Throw those on too!
Or if you want to keep it simple and make a sheet with just sea salt, that will work great. Anything goes!
Jump to the recipe if you’re ready to bake, or read on for lots ideas to make focaccia with toppings.
Option 1: naked focaccia!
You can always bake a naked sheet of focaccia with just a sprinkling of sea salt (perhaps with some garlic and/or some herbs). It’s totally up to you!
Option 2: improvise with your focaccia toppings
If you’re feeling adventurous, choose a few of the following toppings:
Herbs for focaccia
Leafy herbs (add more):
Cilantro
Dill
Parsley
Chives
Basil
Woody herbs (add less)
Thyme
Rosemary
Sage
Oregano
Flavor-boosters
Jammy caramelized onions
Anchovies
Thinly sliced onion
Capers
Olives
Crumbled blue cheese
Red pepper flakes (just a big pinch)
Produce
Summer
Corn kernels
Halved cherry tomatoes
Thinly sliced zucchini/summer squash
Quartered or sliced figs
Red or black seedless grapes
Char-roasted and peeled peppers
Fall
Okra sliced lengthwise
Parcooked thinly sliced squash or pumpkin
Small broccoli or cauliflower florets
Roasted and peeled chestnuts
Winter
Thinly sliced fennel or leeks
Parcooked thinly sliced squash or pumpkin
Roasted and peeled chestnuts
Spring
Small broccoli or cauliflower florets
Asparagus
Peas
Anytime
Frozen corn or peas
Oil-preserved tomatoes and red peppers
Sliced mushrooms
A note on pesto as a mix-in:
Substituting pesto is tricky because it has a lot of flavor but also a lot of oil. Use it in place of the herbs, but be sure to also cut back on the olive oil in the focaccia dough to compensate for the extra richness.
Simply replace the herbs with ½ cup [115 g] pesto, and cut the oil in the dough back from ⅓ cup [70 g] to ¼ cup [50 g].
Seasonal focaccia with toppings
Here are my 4 favorite seasonal combinations (left to right):
Summer: anchovy, tomato, basil
Fall: grape, blue cheese, thyme
Winter: black olive, jammy onion, rosemary
Spring: asparagus, caper, onion, parsley
Easy Focaccia (with any toppings + a video)
Ingredients
For the focaccia dough
- 5½ cups [715 g] all-purpose flour*
- 2¼ tsp [13 g] salt
- 2½ tsp [8 g] instant yeast
- ⅓ cup [70 g] extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cups [470 g] water, at room temperature
- Herbs (optional, see list): ¾ cup [30 g] chopped fresh** leafy herbs, or 2 to 4 Tbsp [10 g] chopped fresh woody herbs
For the topping
Instructions
- Make the dough: Combine the flour, salt, yeast, oil, water, and herbs (if using) in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the hook attachment (or large mixing bowl). Mix together on low (or using your hand in the bowl if you don’t have a stand mixer) until it forms a lumpy dough and then increase the speed to medium. Knead with the hook for about 3 minutes, just until it smooths out quite a lot and starts to look stringy instead of lumpy (about 5 minutes mixing by hand). The dough should be very wet and sticky but not soupy.
- Let it rise: Cover and place the bowl of dough at room temperature. You can let it rise overnight or quickly. To do it overnight, let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, then place in the fridge overnight (up to 36 hours). If you do it quickly, let it rise at room temperature for a total of about 60 minutes, until doubled in size.
- Shape the focaccia: Spread out about 1 Tbsp of the olive oil on an 18 by 13 in [46 by 33 cm] rimmed baking sheet. Move the dough to the pan, bottom-side up, and drizzle on 1 Tbsp of the oil. Use the pads of your fingers to work the dough out into a flat rectangle. Leave little dimples as you go, digging your fingers almost all the way to the baking sheet below, but try not to pop any big visible bubbles. Then fold into thirds like a trifold pamphlet and flip it so the overlapping flaps are on the bottom.
- Let rest at room temperature for about 5 minutes. Once it’s rested, top with another 1 Tbsp of the oil and use the pads of your fingers to work it out into a larger rectangle again.
- Repeat the folding one more time, let it rest for 5 more minutes, and work the dough out into a larger rectangle again. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp of olive oil as well as the sliced garlic, and this time use the pads of your fingers to work the rectangle all the way out to the edges of the baking sheet.
- Top it with the seasonal produce and flavor boosters (if using), pushing them down a little to embed them in the dough, and sprinkle on a little sea salt and extra herbs, if desired.
- Let proof, uncovered, at room temperature for 1 hour, until it’s got a few big air bubbles and looks noticeably larger.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F [220°C] when the dough is almost done proofing.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, until the top is golden brown and it’s cooked through (200°F [93°C] internal temperature). Let cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.
Notes
* You can alternatively use bread flour or whole wheat flour. I’ve even used whole wheat pastry flour, which yields a more tender (yet still chewy) crumb.
** You can substitute a smaller amount of dried herbs if you don’t have fresh. Or omit the herbs entirely!
Storage: After completely cooled, store sealed at room temperature for 1 day, and freeze whatever you don’t plan to eat right away (bread keeps much better in the freezer than in the refrigerator or at room temperature).
Pesto: You can use pesto it in place of the herbs, but be sure to also cut back on the olive oil in the focaccia dough to compensate for the extra richness. Simply replace the herbs with ½ cup [115 g] pesto, and cut the oil in the dough back from ⅓ cup [70 g] to ¼ cup [50 g].
Video note: If you don’t see the video for this post after scrolling up, please disable ad block and try reloading the page.
Psst… by the way, I wrote a whole cookbook of adaptable recipes like this one. It’s called A Dish for All Seasons!
Check it out for adaptable base recipes + ideas for seasonal (and evergreen!) variations
