Spring Focaccia Sandwich
With the arrival of sunny days, the need to have picnics in the sun in a park or on the shore of a lake returns. But the question remains, what can we eat conveniently that differs from the good old French ham and cheese sandwich?
Recently, while watching a documentary on Italy and its culinary specialties, the idea of focaccia came to me. Focaccia is a flat oven-baked Italian bread similar in style and texture to pizza. It can be served as a side dish or as sandwich bread. It looks like a fougasse. The taste is almost identical except for the texture: the focaccia is more airy.
If you only want to make the focaccia you can accompany it with a burrata, a little olive oil, homemade pesto, tapenade or tomato spread as an appetizer. But I strongly recommend that you oil it well before cooking so that it is not too dry. I was lucky enough to be able to use olive oil produced in the south of France by my boyfriend’s grandmother. It is very tasty and has a very recognizable taste.
About the sandwich, my version is vegetarian but you can easily adapt it to your taste. The only factor that will influence the taste of your sandwich is the quality of the ingredients. A good mozzarella will make the difference as well as good French tomatoes.
Now you just have to get started!!!!
Focaccia Sandwich
Ingredients
Foccacia
- 1 + 1/3 cup Warm water around 40°c
- 10 gr Baking yeast
- 3 + 1/2 cup Flour
- 1/4 cup Olive oil
- 2 tsp Kosher salt
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Garlic
Toppings
- 2 Tomatoes
- 1 handful Arugula
- 160 gr Fake meat
- 1 ball Mozzarella
- Olive oil
- Oregano
- Salt
- Ground pepper
- 1 clove Garlic
Instructions
Foccacia
- In a large bowl, add the warm water and yeast and stir gently. Leave for 5 to 10 minutes
- Add flour, olive oil and kosher salt. Stir with a spatula. Transfer to the floured work surface and knead the dough for at least 5 minutes. If the dough sticks too much add flour on your hands
- Wash the bowl and oil it with olive oil. Then put the dough in the shape of a ball inside. Cover it with a damp towel and let it rise for 1 hour (I usually heat my oven to 30-25°c and turn it off to make my dough rise)
- Once the dough has doubled in volume, transfer it to a baking sheet lined with baking paper and roll it out to about 3-5cm thick (the shape does not matter). Let it sit for another 20 minutes in the same warm place
- Preheat the oven to 200°c and use your fingers to poke deep dents all over the surface of the dough. Drizzle olive oil evenly all over the top of the dough, and sprinkle evenly with rosemary, thyme, garlic and kosher salt
- Bake for 20 minutes
Toppings
- Grill the fake meat in a pan with a little oil (see photo for the type of meat)
- Cut the tomatoes in small pieces, put them in a bowl and add 2 tsp of olive oil, a little salt, ground pepper and 1 tsp of oregano, mix and put aside
- Cut the mozarella in slices, set aside
- Once the focaccia is cooked, cut it in two, we will use only one half.
- Cut one part in half: you now have a large half (set aside) and another half cut in half to make our two sandwiches. Cut each slice in half like when you want a sandwich
- Add the tomatoes on the base of the sandwich, then the grilled fake meat, arugula and mozzarella slices and close the sandwich. You can add pesto, tomato spread or tapenade.