Focaccia

The weather has suddenly improved, flowers are coming into bloom, and the swifts have made their first appearance of the season. So obviously I turned the oven up to 11 and made a slab of focaccia.Of course, you can enjoy focaccia any time of the year, but I associate it with good weather and eating outdoors. It’s easy to make and you can make various additions to add interest. I kept it simple this time, flavouring it with fresh rosemary leaves, but you can add olives, capers, anchovies, sundried tomatoes – whatever you like, really.

I’m not a stickler for authenticity, but I did use Italian tipo ’00’ flour, which gives a bread like this a soft, bright crumb. ‘00’ flour is made from soft wheat with a fairly low gluten content. It’s very finely milled and has a high extraction rate: in other words, most of the wheatgerm and bran from the original grain has been filtered out. Because of this, the flour is noticeably finer and whiter than normal plain or strong white flour. In many English-speaking countries highly processed flour like this is sold as ‘cake flour’, because the very fine texture makes it ideal for cakes and confectionery. As far as I know, none of the big milling companies in the UK make an equivalent product.

Flatbreads like focaccia and pizza can be made with soft flour because they don’t need the kind of structural strength that more upright loaf shapes require. You can easily find imported flour in delis, and some smaller millers such as Shipton Mill also supply it.