Tomato Focaccia

How to prepare tomato focaccia

1. Mix the flour with the dry yeast and place in a bowl. Make a well in the center and add the water, sugar, and salt. Mix everything well by hand or with a spoon. The dough is very soft, making it quite easy to mix with a spoon. Mix only until the dough is homogeneous (about 1-2 minutes).
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place (about 28-30°C; near a running radiator or in the oven set to 30°C) for 30 minutes. If it's cooler, you'll need to increase the rising time for each round.
3. Sprinkle plenty of flour on your work surface. Plenty, because the dough is very soft and sticky.
4. Pour 1 tablespoon of oil around the edge of the bowl, all around, and with an oiled hand, release the dough from the sides. Turn the dough onto the work surface and gently stretch it with your hand, then fold it into quarters, pulling gently on the edge before each fold. Handle the dough gently to avoid releasing the air from it.
   * watch this video to see how to fold the dough into quarters and how to stretch it before each fold; our dough will initially be softer than the one in the video, but that's fine; these folds and stretches help develop the gluten.
   Place the dough back in the bowl. Let it rise for another 30 minutes, again in a warm place.
5. Repeat step 4 (stretching+rising) two more times. With each fold, the dough will become firmer, although it will remain quite sticky until the end. If during the first fold the dough is very soft and spreads when you put it on the surface, after the third fold you'll notice that you can shape it without it spreading too much (see photo 3).
6. Sprinkle plenty of flour on your work surface. Turn the dough onto the surface and gently stretch it with your hand. Cut the dough into 4 pieces.
8. Take each piece and roll it to form something similar to mini baguettes. Cover the dough pieces and let them rest for 15 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to maximum (240-250°C) and place a baking sheet in the oven to heat up (I used a cast iron grill pan placed upside down).
10. Sprinkle a little flour on parchment paper. Take each piece of dough and place it on separate pieces of parchment. With fingers greased with oil, make several indentations in the "baguettes," without stretching them too much. Arrange the cherry tomatoes lengthwise, pressing them gently into the dough. Drizzle the tomatoes with a little oil. Sprinkle with oregano.
    * I only prepared 2 focaccias with tomatoes; I stretched 2 pieces more (made more indentations), drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled with chopped rosemary and coarse salt; these rosemary focaccias being flatter, I made sandwiches with them today (with prosciutto cotto and cheese).
11. Place the focaccias with the parchment paper directly on the hot baking sheet in the oven. Bake for about 10-13 minutes (until they are nicely browned on top).
12. Remove them and after they cool down, store them covered with plastic wrap. Let them cool completely, they are much better that way.

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