There’s a moment in Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat when she’s told that a traditional Ligurian focaccia is never more than 2 centimetres tall — not like the tall and fluffy focaccia of Puglia. That stuck with me, and I later confirmed it — by eating many, many portions of focaccia in Liguria. Anyway, this isn’t even Samin’s recipe (I didn’t have much success with the brine method, to be honest), but it is a reliable, versatile, 2-centimetre-tall Ligurian-style focaccia: crispy, salty and olive-oily on the outside, airy and springy on the inside.
{ Recipe based on a half-batch of the focaccia from Saltie (RIP). }
Makes enough to fill a large baking dish.
Prep/waiting time: ~9 hours (start in the morning, finish in the evening).
Gather:
3 + 1/4 cups plain flour
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 + 3/4 cup warm water
3 tbsp good olive oil
Before baking:
1/4 cup good olive oil
A few good pinches of salt
(Optional) A few sundried tomatoes
Then:
- Add the flour, salt and yeast to a large mixing bowl and combine (just with a fork will do).
- Add the water, and stir with a wooden spoon until there’s no dry flour left.
- Using your hands, massage the dough/knead it in the bowl for about 30 seconds until it’s quite smooth — no need to go heavy-duty on the kneading.
- Lift the dough up in one hand, and pour the olive oil into the bowl with the other, then use your free/pouring hand to spread the oil around the bowl.
- Drop the dough back into the bowl and turn it a few times so it’s coated in olive oil.
- Cover the bowl with cling wrap and leave it on the bench for about 4 hours.
… - After 4 hours, transfer your bowl of dough to the fridge for another 4 hours. Before it goes in, it should look a bit like this:
… - After the second 4 hours, take your dough out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 470ºF/244ºC.
- Pour half the extra olive oil into a large roasting pan or baking dish, and spread it around evenly (with your hands is fine).
- Tip the dough into the prepared baking dish and use your fingers to stretch it out into all four corners. (The dough will fight you. You will eventually triumph.)
- Drape a tea-towel over the pan and leave your dough to sit somewhere warm for about half an hour or until the oven finishes pre-heating.
… - When the oven is ready: Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the dough, spread it over the entire surface with your (clean) hands, and then use your fingers to press divots deep into the dough — as if you were playing chords on a piano.
- Sprinkle the extra few pinches of salt evenly over the now-dimpled dough. You could also put sun-dried tomato in each little hole, if you wish.
- Pop the tray/dish in the oven on the middle shelf, and bake for 15–25 minutes. This batch took a bit longer than usual, so the best approach is to use your eye — it should be golden all over but not too dark.
- Remove your beautiful focaccia from the oven and — using tongs or a spatula or both — lift it out of the tray/dish and onto a cooling rack.
- This focaccia is definitely best/crispiest/fluffiest on the day it’s baked, but it will keep in an airtight container for a few days. And you can always chuck leftovers back the oven for a few minutes to revive its crispy crust.
The Lucky Baker 
