Easy focaccia bread is better with or without tomaotes?

If I had the time machine parked in the garden I would not drive it. I have serious problems riding a bicycle, my license has expired since last November and racing skills are among my skills as the sweetness between those of Malefica.
Of course if there is any volunteer driver to candidate as a temporal chauffeur I would not say no.

Where to, Miss?

Not on a star, Icaro has already thought of it making a bad end.

As a first step, I would take straight to the under 10 birthdays. Those made of metal-tipped hats, paper trumpets, white lace stockings, white lace stockings broken over the scraped knee, layers cakes with cream and strawberries, the “very comfortable” mary-jane shoes to follow each other, the gift-table and the light-heartedness of being a child without being aware of the advantages that this status quo brought with it. But above all, them: the focaccia bread.

The focaccia bread, omnipresent in any house event that hosted children, came straight from the bakery above my grandpa house. That bakery does not exist anymore but my desire for focaccia is still there. And how!

Unable to find for sale of vaguely similar to those indelible in my taste buds, not possessing a time machine for now, I decided to try to do a great work: replicate the focaccia bread of which I ate in large doses when I was little now that I’m old.
Moved by a gluttony that does not know satiety, I managed in a rather satisfactory way.

They are soft in the inner and fragrant outside, tasty and astonishing as only the simplest things can be. A perfect combination of flour, oil, water and salt.
A dose of good humor and serenity within a bite you can churn out whenever you want. You need only a few ingredients and a few hours of leavening to bake a bread that elevates your spirit to accompany it in the celestial spheres (and beyond) with just a single bite.

And now I realize that sometimes words are not enough. The poetics of the focaccia bread is understandable only if you taste it. The spark that springs on your tongue as when you know you have found the right person can not be expressed in any other language.

But I must tell you about the possible side effects of taking massive doses of focaccia bread: they are addictive, they force you to suck your greasy fingers and your lips will turn red and they’ll taste like tomatoes.

But what should you say … you must forgive everything to he focaccia bread like this.

Easy focaccia bread with or without tomatoes – the recipe

INGREDIENTS (doses for 10 focaccia bread)

• 330 g of manitoba flour
• 200 g of water
• 7 g of dry yeast ( or 20 g of fresh yeast)
• 3 g of sugar
• 20 g of extra virgin olive oil
• 5 g of salt
• cherry tomatoes q.s.
• extra virgin olive oil, salt, black pepper e oregano q.s.

PROCESS

1. Melt yeast in water together with sugar. Add the flour and start kneading. I use the planetary machine but of course, if you do not have it, you can safely replace it with your hands and a little ‘patience.
2. After a couple of minutes add the oil and salt and mix at the maximum speed for another 5 minutes, until you get a smooth dough.
3. Transfer it to a floured surface and let it rest for 5 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 10 parts and shape the balls by folding them and then giving it a round shape.
5. Leave them to rise covered with a cloth for 1 hour.
6. After this time, gently crushing them, give the balls the shape of the focaccia bread. Transfer them to a previously greased baking pan.
7. Prepare a wash with oil, oregano and black pepper. Brush the whole surface of the focaccia with the oregano wash. Leave them to rest for 30 minutes.
8. Now the focaccia bread are ready for the characteristic “holes”. With your fingers press the holes with force – but without exaggerating.
9. “White” focaccia bread: pour a teaspoon of warm water in the center of the focaccia, trying to make sure that it accumulates in the little holes. Tomatoes focaccia bread: cut the peeled tomatoes in half, season them with a little oil and a pinch of salt, add them to the surface of the focaccia.
10. Let the focaccia bread rise for one last hour.
11. Bake in preheated oven at 230 ° C for 15 minutes.