Happy Holidays everyone! In particular I guess Happy New Year! Sorry it has been a pretty long time since I posted what I was making in Madison but since I had a little time off I decided to write a few more posts up and I haggled Kiki so maybe she will have a post up sometime soon.
After the string of desserts that I have put up I thought it would be good for me to include something else. Recently, I have had some really amazing Italian meals, pumpkin ravioli (at two different places), orecchiette with sausage and rapini, porcini and salsicca risotto, pappardelle del cacciatore, salsicca rosa and the list goes on. So being inspired from all these wonderful meals and for some reason having an insatiable craving for Italian food, I decided that I would try out some recipes. Most recently, I tried out making a very basic focaccia bread and penne pasta with sausage (go figure from the list of dishes I chose to order) and broccoli and mushrooms in a pinot grigio cream sauce. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the pasta, but since my Italian craving is still going strong I will probably be making some more fairly soon. However, I did take pictures of the focaccia bread.
This recipe, from Allrecipes.com, turned out to be really simple and you can take it in any direction. For my first go around with the focaccia bread I just went simple and made a garlic and herb version, but really anything goes. On my to-do list are feta cheese/kalamata olives/rosemary or toasted sesame seeds/ginger versions. The reason this recipe was so great was that total it took about an hour to prepare and bake and didn’t require a lot of planning. The bread came out with a little bit of a crust with a warm and soft center…if it had lasted longer (no thanks to my lab mate who was at my apt dropping off some bagels he brought back from new york…) the focaccia bread would have gone great with a little bit of olive oil and salt/cracked pepper.
Focaccia Bread
Ingredients:
1 package of active dry yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1/3 cup warm water, plus ¼ cup of water
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp salt
fresh cracked pepper*
cracked sea salt*
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped*
some rosemary, basil and oregano*
*optional
- In the bowl of an electric mixer dissolve sugar and dry active yeast in 1/3 cup warm water. Let this stand for about 10 minutes for the yeast to active and the mixture will become frothy.
- Add the all purpose flour and ¼ cup of water and mix until the dough comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly until the dough is smooth.
- Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes. The dough should double in volume.
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.
- Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about a minute. Pat it flat and place in a lightly greased 9×13 pan.
- Brush with the olive oil, sprinkle with garlic, salt, cracked pepper and herbs.
- Bake the focaccia bread for 10-15 minutes until the bread is golden.
The focaccia bread is amazing right out of the oven and almost irresistible so be prepared to eat the whole thing! Plus the options are endless with what types of toppings you can put on the bread…so go nuts! Enjoy the tastiness.