Sourdough Focaccia Barese with Spring Onions, Green Olives & Lemon Zest

There is something about the smell of olive oil hitting a hot tin that makes everything else in the flat feel irrelevant. It is Friday evening, there is a Kerri Chandler set playing from the speaker on the shelf, and a tray of focaccia Barese is about to come out of the oven with a crust that crackles when you press it and a crumb that is all open and springy underneath. That is the whole point of this one.

Focaccia Barese is the lesser-talked-about cousin of the pillowy Ligurian slab most people know. It comes from Puglia in southern Italy and it is a different thing entirely: crispier base, denser but still light crumb, and a proper pooling of olive oil on top. Making it with a sourdough starter rather than commercial yeast gives it a gentle tang that plays brilliantly against the brininess of the olives and the lift of fresh lemon zest. Spring is exactly the right time to make this. The days are getting longer, the kitchen is a bit warmer, and your starter is probably the most active it has been since October. Use that energy.

What makes Barese focaccia different

The Ligurian version is what most people know: thick, pillowy, generously dimpled, drizzled with olive oil and sea salt. Focaccia Barese goes in a different direction. The base is thinner and crisper, almost fried on the underside from the layer of oil in the tin. The crumb is still open and has a good chew, but it has more body and structure. And the toppings are pressed in more firmly rather than just sitting on the surface.

Spring onions, green olives and lemon zest sounds like a simple combination, but it works particularly well together. The spring onions soften and sweeten as they roast. The olives blister slightly and deepen in flavour. The lemon zest brightens everything and cuts through the richness of the oil. Against a sourdough base with its gentle tang, the brine in the olives has something to play against rather than just sitting there.

Ingredients

• 300g active sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 350g strong bread flour
• 200ml lukewarm water
• 8g fine sea salt
• 50ml good olive oil, plus extra for the tin and finishing
• 5-6 spring onions, sliced into 3cm pieces
• 80g green olives, pitted and halved
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Flaky sea salt for finishing

Method

1. Mix the starter, flour, water and salt together until a rough dough forms. Cover and rest for 30 minutes. Add half the olive oil and incorporate it by folding and squeezing the dough until it is absorbed and the dough feels cohesive.
2. Perform 3-4 sets of stretch-and-folds over the next 2 hours, covering between each set. The dough should gradually become smoother and more elastic.
3. Oil a 23 x 33cm metal baking tin generously. Transfer the dough to the tin, cover, and let it relax for 30 minutes before pressing it out toward the edges. If it springs back, cover and give it another 15 minutes.
4. Cover and bulk ferment at room temperature until the dough is puffy and showing bubbles at the edges, typically 3-5 hours depending on your kitchen temperature. For precise timing around a specific baking window, the DoughRise fermentation calculator is useful here.
5. Preheat your oven to 230°C (fan 210°C). Scatter the spring onions, olives and lemon zest evenly across the surface and press them gently into the dough. Drizzle over the remaining olive oil and finish with a good pinch of flaky salt.
6. Bake for 22-26 minutes until the top is golden and the base pulls away cleanly from the sides of the tin. Rest in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack.

A few notes

The metal tin matters. Oil it properly rather than lining it with paper because the base gets its character from direct contact with a hot, well-oiled tin. If yours has a tendency to stick, a brief warm-up on the hob over a medium heat after oiling helps before the dough goes in.

This also reheats well the next day. The base firms up slightly overnight, which actually makes it better in some ways. Five minutes in a hot oven brings it back to something close to fresh.

Happy baking. Find everything you need at doughrise.store

Photo by Iñigo De la Maza on Unsplash