Pan fried focaccia - the #1 comfort food ever!

A bit melodramatic, but…. YOU HAVE NEVER LIVED if you haven’t tasted fried (GF) focaccia….. and especially ours :-).

This will forever be my #1 comfort food from now on. Particularly when served with cold white wine or rosé (drink responsibly)!!!!

Made with a 400g bag of our pizza mix So we followed our focaccia recipe (1.5 hours as per below):

• 415g lukewarm water (reduced vs normal recipe to make it slightly easier to handle).
• 16g sugar
• 6g salt (in the dough)
• 16g olive oil (in the dough) + more olive oil along the way.
• And 10g (fresh) yeast if it is made the same morning as you will eat it in the evening; 6g if you do it the night before. If you only have two hours before baking a focaccia you need 20 grams of fresh yeast (1,5 proof in room temp).

You only need a bowl, a (sturdy) ladle (not with too thin a wooden handle) and three deep plates.

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Empty the contents of the bag, stir and add the salt. Stir until the dough is smooth. Pour in the olive oil (16g) and stir.  It will be very sticky!

Divide it into three portions of about 295 grams each, and with very oily hands shape three balls, place them in three oiled deep plates and let them proof for 60 minutes.

Heat up a skillet or frying pan to 6 (out of 9) for about 5-7 minutes, add olive oil and brush the pan so it’s well covered/oiled.

Please note that some olive oils become more bitter when cooking at high temperatures. So choose wisely.

Insert a soft (silicone) spatula, all around the dough in the plate - trying to take care not to release too much of the air. When you think you’ve gotten it as loose as possible, take the plate over to the oiled, heated pan and slide/lift it down.

Leave to bake//fry/cook for about 2 minutes then use a harder (metal) spatula to (again carefully) release the bottom of the focaccia from the pan. It will stick a little With a bit of patience it will come loose, so you can slide it around.

Bake for a total of 5 minutes on this side.

Once the time is up, turn over and bake for another 5-6 minutes. Finally turn over for another 1-2 minutes and it’s done.

Place on a grate to cool down a bit (it will be warm for a long time).

And you don’t need to overdo the topping - actually, after the filming was over - the best topping was just a few thin slices of crudo / parma ham and a bit of parmigiana.