You wondering what he was going to say then.

Didn't you? You thought focaccia. You wondered what it was didn't you.

No, focaccia, it's a lovely bit of bread. It's a beautiful kind of

thick flatbread. It's spongy, it's soulful. It's so

delicious. I'm going to do a flavour, and Gennaro's going to do a flavour.

Joy. Yes joyful. As you know this is the Italian stallion Gennaro Contaldo my

mentor. One of the early things that we made together

back in the day, twenty years ago, yes bread

with at the heart what this man did. He gave that love to me. I've taken that forward.

But first of all, tell the lovely people of Food Tube some of the flavours that

you can do

with focaccia. Almost everything that you can do with onions, you can do it with the potatoes,

you can do it with the cheese, you can do it with the rosemary, you can do it with the tomatoes,

you could do it with

thyme. You can do it with wine, you can do it with garlic, with mushroom, ordinary mushrooms,

a bit of olive oil. When that come out

run them on a table, ah! If you love Genarro give us a thumbs up

if you really love him give us a comment. First of all, we need to mix the flour

and the yeast. So we have five hundred grams of beautiful flour.

It has to be a strong flour, and we've got some yeast.

Put that into our jug. Seven grams in these little sachets.

Always seven grams. Add 325 millilitres of

tepid water. Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! A little bit.

Nice pinch of salt. I'll take the liberty of just a little bit of olive oil.

That's good. Just a tablespoon. This just gets a nice bit of richest and colour happening

in the dough. Just pour the warm water over the

yeast. Stir it with a spoon until it all comes together.

Try and use the spoon as much as possible, and then when it too hard to use the

spoon anymore

a little flour on your hands. So then we knead. Knead for about 10 minutes.

Just pull it back and then push it away.

You want to stretch the gluten, and

and you really want to make it elastic to build up that kind of

rubber band-like kinda texture and the reason you want it to be like that

is as the yeast produces air

gas, you don't want it just to sort of escape,

you want that sort-of, that sort-of bendiness of the bread,

the kind of structure of the bread to really hold the air in.

So it's light and spongy and gorgeous.

We want to create some humidity. Just put the bowl over

So we're going to let it prove for forty minutes, then we're gonna come back and show you what to do

next

1-2-3

Oh yes! That's lovely and stretchy now.

This reminds me Gennaro's

beautiful soft skin.

Ah, thank God for that.

So, we're gonna shape the Focaccia now.

Add a cup of semolina. This particular one

is plenty just a little bit. If you want to you can put a little hole

inside.

Look how soft and silky that is. So we're going to lay this

into the tray. Easy. Extra virgin

cold-pressed olive oil. A couple of tablespoons

go in there. Going deep to the bottom. Loads of holes.

You can tell we made a beautiful dough here. See how delicate that is there.

Beautiful. So we're in a good place. so we're going to do two different ones. Yes. I'm going to use beautiful

boiled

red skin potatoes. They're kind of lovely crushed. At the same time and this is not

traditional but I kinda I always love to show you new things. That's the purple potato.

it's just a really beautiful thing. I like leaving the skin on as well.

It's no problem.

Thyme. Just put a little oil on the outside. If you put herbs on dry

it will taste of nothing. Okay. If you just massage it in a bit of oil

then you put that on top and the flavor will be transmitted

onto the the lovely dough, and it will be incredible.

Gorgonzola. Not too much. Hardly anything. 20-30 grams.

Tiny bit of salt and pepper, and that is my combo. So what you gonna do Gennaro?

Talk, talk us through your combo. The marriage of the Basil

and the tomato together. It is incredible.

Just a little hole. He's sticking his finger in again.

And then, you put them inside the basil. But this time it's inside the basil.

And then get a cloth. Damp with some warm water,

and we want to create some humidity

and it's gonna double in size. Beautiful. Our job now is to keep as much of that

air in the focaccia. So it's crisp on the outside,

and beautiful and spongy on the inside. Is that fair to say?

You said the perfect words. Lovely. See you in 45 minutes.

45 minutes go by, and have a look.

Oh my, my. It's doubled in size. Inside there are these little pastels of ooh-la-la.

I'm gonna put little

touch of salt. Not too much. We're gonna cook this

for about 20 minutes/25 minutes at 200 centigrades.

400 Farenheit.

So, be really gentle when you put it in the oven. Don't slam the door.

And then, in about 20 or 25 minutes

you're going to get a beautiful Focaccia. Not a pizza. A Focaccia.

You're ready?

Yes! Gennaro, get your, get your one, mate.

Beautiful. Look at that. You definitely don't want

to be eating this straight away. Let it cool down.

At least 10 minutes. It's very important. You have to feed the focaccia

as soon as it comes out the oven. It is hungry for good oil.

Okay.

We've done some extra ones as well, which can be a little bit cooler. So

we can eat those.

That's what we're looking for brothers and sisters.

Really crisp bottom. Really spongy soft middle,

crispy top. Come and have a look. Those little wells where all that lovely oil has gone.

Really, really nice. I mean, just look at that. Really nice with cured meat.

So shall we try some of this Gennaro? Oh yeah.

Can I? Yeah, go for it.

The flavours are lovely.

Well done Gennaro. So there you go guys. I hope you enjoyed that lovely focaccia recipe.

If you like it, give it a thumbs up. We love getting your thumbs up.

Put the comments on the comments box below if you've got any ideas for toppings.

We love hearing all that too. Remember Gennaro has his own channel.

Click that box right down there. Subscribe to his channel because it's free

just like Food Tube. If you're wondering, why me and Gennaro have

dressed down today it's because we've been doing the front cover of the next Jamie

magazine.

You are gonna love it. Until next time from me and Gennaro

Ciao bella. Arrivederci.

Keep cooking. Keep cooking. Subscribe. I'm waiting, I'm waiting.

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