Right Now: Fresh Fig and Pesto Focaccia
Light-as-air focaccia meets jammy figs and fresh basil.
Over the weekend, a generous friend's abundance of fresh, delicious figs spurred me to make this fig focaccia. In the oven, the figgy sweetness concentrates and the pesto trades its fresh bite for deep flavor. The pools of olive oil that surrounded the raw dough disappear, leaving only a light, tender crumb with a satisfying amount of stretch.
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I used to be intimidated by anything yeasted and avoided it at all costs. Over time, and after a lot of failure, I started to embrace yeasted foods. I'm pretty sure pizza dough was the gateway, but it could just as easily have been focaccia. Making focaccia at home is as simple as mixing yeast, honey, water, flour, salt, and olive oil and letting it rise overnight. From there, you'll need to do a second rise and bake. There are a few steps, but they're mostly quick and easy ones. Especially when you have the joy of tender, herby, fig-studded focaccia at the end.
While I've used figs here, halved cherry or plum tomatoes, sliced peaches or onions, herbs, anchovies, lightly sautéed summer squash, or chopped olives can all be swapped in or mixed and matched. Use restraint when adding toppings – nobody wants soggy focaccia.
This recipe is vegan. For the omnivores out there, finishing the focaccia with shaved Parmesan or Pecorino would be excellent.
Fig and Pesto Focaccia
For best results, allow the dough time to rise overnight in the fridge. The longer rise yields dough with excellent flavor and a stretchy structure. If you're in a hurry, make the dough first thing in the morning and let it rise at least 8 hours in the fridge.
This recipe makes a lot of focaccia but can easily be halved. If you halve the recipe, check the focaccia in the oven after 15 minutes.
The pesto recipe makes much more than you'll need, but leftovers can quickly be devoured by adding an extra smear to the baked focaccia, dolloping it onto a sliced tomato salad, or tossing with a bowl of pasta.
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