Bake up Herbal Breads for the Smell of Home

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Lightly sprinkle baking sheet with cornmeal. Place loaves, not touching, on sheet and sprinkle tops with cornmeal. With sharp knife, make two or three diagonal slashes, about 1/2 inch deep, across tops of loaves. Place towel over loaves and allow them to rise in warm place until almost doubled in bulk.

Bake in hot oven for about 45 minutes, until tops are golden brown. Remove to baking rack to cool.

Foccacia with Rosemary

Makes one 10- by 15-inch foccacia

I first ate foccacia al ramerino when I was a student living in Perugia. We’d stop on our way to Italian class and get a piece of this fragrant foccacia, which was cut into 6-inch squares, and have it for breakfast, licking the olive oil from our fingers as we walked to the Universita. This recipe is an adaptation of that wonderful, savory bread.

The best homemade foccacia is cooked at a high heat on a baking stone, or on tiles. The oven needs to be set a little lower when the foccacia is baked on a metal pan. Because foccacia is generally too big to be handled with a pizza peel, I bake mine on a dark metal baking sheet, sprinkled with cornmeal so that the dough doesn’t stick.

Dough:
This recipe yields enough dough for one thick foccacia; I often double it and keep one in the fridge to bake a day or two later, or freeze the dough to thaw before using at a later date.

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
11/2 cups warm water, 100 to 105°F, divided
31/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour, or use all white flour
if desired
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh minced rosemary

Dissolve yeast in about 1/4 cup warm water and let proof for about 10 minutes.

Mix flours and make a well in them. When yeast has proofed (yeast begins to foam), pour it into well with about half remaining water. Gradually stir water and yeast into well. Add olive oil, salt and rest of water and stir to blend. Turn dough out onto pastry marble or board dusted with flour. Gather dough and knead it, adding flour if necessary. Sprinkle chopped rosemary over dough, fold dough over, and knead rosemary into dough. Dough should be soft and lively after 7 or 8 minutes.

Let dough double in bulk in lightly oiled bowl. It is ideal to do this first rise in the refrigerator overnight, but it is not necessary. Punch dough down and pat it into rough rectangle with your hands. Let rest, covered with towel, on lightly floured surface for 20 minutes, or until dough is at room temperature if it has been refrigerated.

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