P
Italian · Puglia
Impasto di Focaccia Barese con Patate
The definitive focaccia of Bari — a thick, soft, dimpled bread made with semolina flour, boiled potato mashed into the dough, olive oil and topped with halved cherry tomatoes pressed into the surface, olives and dried oregano. The potato makes the crumb extraordinarily tender and the crust remarkably crisp. Baked at very high heat in a round tin with a generous pool of olive oil on the bottom.
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
300 g
semolina flour (semola rimacinata)
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
200 g
boiled floury potato
mashed while still hot, cooled to 30°C before use
Origin · FranceLekker · Vancouver →
240 ml
water
lukewarm — 80% hydration by flour weight
Your own market
7 g
dried instant yeast
Your own market
10 g
fine sea salt
Your own market
80 ml
extra-virgin olive oil
divided: some in the dough, remainder for the tin and surface
Your own market
For the topping
200 g
60 g
pitted black olives
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tsp
dried oregano
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
For the tin
50 ml
extra-virgin olive oil
minimum — for the base of the 30 cm tin
Your own market
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Boil the potato until completely tender. Drain, peel, and mash immediately while still hot so the starch hydrates fully. Spread on a plate and leave to cool to 30°C — test with a finger; it should feel barely warm. Cold potato will produce lumps that refuse to incorporate.
2
Combine the semolina flour, yeast, salt, and cooled mashed potato in a large bowl. Add the water gradually and mix until a shaggy mass forms. Add a small pour of olive oil and work the dough with wet hands, folding rather than kneading aggressively — this is an 80% hydration dough and must be handled gently. Continue for 8–10 minutes until the dough is smooth, cohesive, and pulls away from the sides of the bowl; it will remain tacky.
3
Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, approximately 1.5–2 hours. Alternatively, shape at this point and refrigerate overnight for slow fermentation; the dough is ready when it has doubled and holds a finger-poke impression that springs back slowly.
4
Pour the 50 ml of olive oil into the 30 cm round tin and tilt to coat the base and sides entirely. This is where the dish lives or dies: the oil must pool visibly and generously across the entire base — insufficient oil means the characteristic crackling, deep-fried-style crust will not form, and the focaccia will be soft throughout rather than crisp-bottomed and tender-crumbed. Turn the dough into the tin and press it outward with oiled fingertips to fill the tin, dimpling the surface as you go. Allow to rest, uncovered, for 20 minutes until the surface looks slightly puffed and the dimples have relaxed open.
5
Set the oven to 250°C (conventional) and allow it to come fully to temperature. Press the halved cherry tomatoes skin-side up into the dough, pushing each one down firmly so it contacts the dough rather than sitting on the surface — the juice must absorb into the crumb during baking. Scatter the olives across the surface, pressing them lightly. Drizzle a further thread of olive oil over the top and dust with dried oregano.
6
Bake at 250°C for 20–25 minutes. The focaccia is ready when the base is deeply golden and audibly crisp when the tin is tilted and the base tapped, the surface is blistered and amber at the edges, and the tomatoes have collapsed and stained the surrounding dough red. Remove from the tin immediately to prevent the base softening in residual steam.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Semola rimacinata di grano duro from a single Pugliese mill; waxy potato variety such as Sieglinde mashed while steam-hot; cold-pressed single-estate Pugliese extra-virgin olive oil; vine-ripened Pachino or Datterino cherry tomatoes.
02
Estate — Good-quality semola rimacinata; floury potato of consistent variety; an honest southern Italian extra-virgin olive oil with low acidity; cherry tomatoes from a known grower.
03
Market — Widely available semola rimacinata; any standard floury potato; supermarket extra-virgin olive oil; ordinary cherry tomatoes — the dish performs well at this level provided technique is sound.
04
House — Potato flakes (instant potato) in equal weight to the boiled potato — the entry explicitly endorses this substitution as producing an identical result; standard olive oil; any available cherry tomatoes.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. Mashed potato at 30°C — barely warm against the inner wrist, smooth with no cold lumps.
◇Touch. Risen dough holds a slow-returning finger-poke impression; it has visibly doubled in volume.
◇Sight. Oil pools visibly across the entire base of the tin before the dough goes in — an unbroken, generous slick.
◇Sight. Baked surface is blistered and amber at the edges; tomatoes have fully collapsed and stained the surrounding dough.
◇Sound. The base of the baked focaccia produces a dry, hollow tap when knocked — the sign of a fully crisped, oily crust.
◇Where it lives or dies. The tin must hold a visible, generous pool of olive oil — at minimum 50 ml — before the dough is placed in it; without this the base will not acquire its defining crackling, oily crust.
Pillar V
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The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
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VI
What to Pour
A young, mineral southern Italian rosato — the olive oil richness and oregano intensity call for a wine with enough acidity to cut through without competing with the bread's character. A chilled Primitivo or Negroamaro rosato from Puglia aligns naturally with the dish's region and flavour register.
The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
Sourced through Provenance