How Genovese focaccia bread is made in Italy

• Warm, fluffy, olive oil drenched focaccia is the signature bread of Genoa, on the Italia Riviera.
• Focaccia here is eaten at pretty much any time of the day: as a starter, a main, a snack, and even for dessert.
• Despite being a quick eat, making focaccia is far from a speedy process. It requires long leavening times between each step which range between 10 minutes and two hours.
• We take you to one of the oldest bakeries in Genoa, Antico Forno della Casana, where experienced baker Ivan Sacchi shares his tips for making the perfect Genovese focaccia.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Claudia Romeo: Today we're in Genoa, on the Italian Riviera. This city is famous for many things, like its ancient port, the aquarium, but most of all focaccia bread. And here, it's eaten at pretty much any time of the day. You can have it for breakfast, as a snack, for lunch, for dinner, and even as dessert with Nutella. So you know what? It's time...oh, I don't care what time of the day it is. It's just time for focaccia. Let's go and see how it's made. The old town is scattered with bakeries churning fresh focaccia at every hour of the day. While you may be tempted to stop at the first shop that you see, we're taking you to one of the oldest bakeries in Genoa, Antico Forno della Casana. Behind this busy focaccia counter is Ivan Sacchi, who has been making focaccia since 1985 and has never abided by a set recipe.

Ivan Sacchi: Every day we leave our house and look up to the sky and what the weather is like. You work based on the weather and the temperature you feel on your skin.

Claudia: Despite being a quick eat, making focaccia is far from a speedy process. It requires long leavening times between each step. These range between 10 minutes and two hours. The process starts with Ivan making the dough and then kneading it.

Ivan: The ingredients in the mixer are flour, olive oil, lard, salt, malt, brewer's yeast, sourdough, and water of course. Because without water....

Claudia: The quantity of ingredients is something that you have learned?

Ivan: Yes, it's something that we learn, and then, little by little, you make it yours and you adjust it to yourself and to your needs. The weather affects it, and flour makes a difference as well. There are at times more humid or less humid flours, stronger or weaker. It should switch to second gear in a bit.

Claudia: How long is left here?

Ivan: Almost there.

Claudia: Almost there?

Ivan: We're going to lift it in a few minutes. Now it's her who's the boss, not me.

Claudia: Now it's ready?

Ivan: Ready. Now we have to lift it up.

Claudia: But how do you know that it is ready? I mean, you see it, you feel it?

Ivan: Well, it's nice and smooth. Look. Nice and thin. Not warm, so we stopped it at the right time. It has to be nice and elastic.

Claudia: Super elastic.

Ivan: It is important to take it out as soon as possible. Otherwise it dries.

Claudia: So, what is the difference between focaccia dough and bread dough?

Ivan: With focaccia, you have fewer production cycles but more leavening time. Bread has several production cycles, but leavening time is faster.

Claudia: OK. So it is completely different. To consider focaccia a type of bread...no.

Ivan: Absolutely not.

Claudia: So, you know everybody abroad that calls it focaccia bread? That is absolutely not true.

Ivan: Well. If one hasn't got any bread, they make do with focaccia.

Claudia: Obviously. Actually, I know that here in Genoa it is eaten for breakfast too. Ivan: Yes. Yes, for breakfast too.

Claudia: Yes? Wow.

Ivan: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon snack. All the time. Focaccia is eaten all the time.

Claudia: So it's a bit like bread here, no? It's Genoa's bread.

Ivan: No.

Claudia: No.

Ivan: No.

Claudia: It's better.

Ivan: It's better. Because you get a simple slice of focaccia, you eat it, it's tasty, you're satisfied. You get a simple slice of bread, if you don't fill it with something….

Claudia: So it's a better bread. It's not bread, it's just a better bread. That's it. How much does it weigh?

Ivan: So, there's 26 kilos of flour. Then 4 kilos of seasoning, so we're at 30. Then there's 16 liters of water.

Claudia: So, how many focaccias will you get from this dough?

Ivan: From this dough, it's 26, 52… 56 focaccias, more or less.

Claudia: Wow. And these will all finish today? I mean, they will all be purchased today?

Ivan: Yes, more or less. This morning's are already here, and the rest will go for the afternoon.

Claudia: The end of the kneading of the dough marks the beginning of the first leavening time. This is a quick one, about 10 minutes, after which the dough is going to be split in small batches and put to rest on a wooden board.

Ivan: We have to go ahead in a couple of minutes.

Claudia: OK.

Ivan: Otherwise, it will rise further, the dough will gain strength, and then the baker goes crazy trying to stretch it.

Claudia: Otherwise it gets harder.

Ivan: My friend is going to come soon. He weighs and cuts, and I put it on the boards. The raw weight is about 940 grams, and the final product will be about 800 grams.

Claudia: So you don't lose a lot?

Ivan: You usually form some human chains, like so.

Claudia: Ah, yes. So you finish earlier.

Ivan: Go on, Baka. Don't stop. This one has to be weighed, Baka. This work here, we try to never get to this step here during the shop's peak time because you need two or more than one person to do it.

Claudia: Yes, of course.

Ivan: Then the oven is unattended. Baka.

Baka: Yes, I'm coming.

Ivan: You're tall. I can't reach it.

Claudia: If you're not tall, you can't make it.

Ivan: The dough is very soft. Feel it. Take this.

Claudia: Let's see, wow. Yeah, this is very soft inside.

Ivan: Very soft.

Claudia: And not so hard on the outside, actually. It's not that hard outside. You really feel that it is soft.

Ivan: It's soft.

Claudia: Whereas at times with bread dough, you can really feel that —

Ivan: The dough is much more —

Claudia: that there will be a hard crust.

Ivan: Of course.

Claudia: So that is different from bread.

Ivan: This will also come out nice and crunchy. Then it's all in the cooking.

Claudia: This is very elastic. It's very, like, energetic as well, very firm. When you move them, you can feel both sides, you know. I mean, I'm feeling them in my hands. I don't know how I'm gonna be able to take this off. [laughs] So that's really a different dough. It just smells like dough. Dough will spend about one and a half hours on the wooden boards. This is the second leavening.

Ivan: Flour is needed so that the focaccia doesn't stick to the sheet.

Claudia: OK.

Ivan: And the sheet is to avoid focaccia growing skin.

Claudia: Skin?

Ivan: Yes, it gets dry. It grows a dry film.

Claudia: Ah, OK.

Ivan: This then affects the leavening.

Claudia: Ah, OK.

Ivan: This one, however, keeps it humid.

Claudia: So the sheet plays an important part?

Ivan: Of course. It keeps it humid.

Claudia: It's not just there to separate the focaccias.

Ivan: No, no, absolutely not.

Claudia: When the waiting time is over, the small batches of dough are stretched on baking trays with a bit of olive oil.

Ivan: The longer the leavening, the better the result. Now the baker's hand comes into play.

Claudia: Yes. Is there a particular technique?

Ivan: Yes, you need to be careful not to make it too thick on one side or too high, and you need manual dexterity. If you do it a lot of times like I do, then you get it right. It's hard to find — I get it wrong myself at times too. It's hard to find somebody who really knows how to stretch the focaccia. Because focaccia has to be stretched, and most bakers beat it. And when you beat it, you break the honeycomb in the dough, and the final result is completely different.

Claudia: Can we see the outcome of the leavening? So the air bubbles?

Ivan: Eh, air bubbles…I would have to cut it, but you wouldn't see them anyway.

Claudia: Ah, OK.

Ivan: You can't see them. If I cut here, I mark it but it stays closed.

Claudia: OK.

Ivan: You can't see them now.

Claudia: Yes.

Ivan: You can see them when cooked. When it's cooked you can see them. You can see the honeycomb made by carbon dioxide.

Claudia: So they're all in here?

Ivan: They're all in here.

Claudia: We will see them later.

Ivan: Now we add its seasoning, which is made of extra-virgin olive oil, water, and salt. It's an emulsion.

Claudia: Ah, it's all in here? All together?

Ivan: It's an emulsion, yes.

Claudia: Ah, OK.

Ivan: We spare no expense. Because even if they say that Genoveses are stingy, they're not on this one.

Claudia: Yes, a nice sprinkling of oil.

Ivan: Yes.

Claudia: So good.

Ivan: You reach all parts. Then you start poking it with your fingertips, so that when it cooks and it rises, the oil stops in the holes, doesn't go everywhere. This is the peculiarity of focaccia. This is where the flavor of focaccia is.

Claudia: OK. So these small holes that we see in the finished focaccia are basically the fingertips of the baker?

Ivan: Yes, yes. It's the fingertips of the baker.

Claudia: Wow.

Ivan: Nothing but the fingertips of the baker. In these holes you get the typical flavor of focaccia because they retain the salt, the oil, and the water, which leaves it slightly raw in the hole. Well.... Focaccia is all done by hand. Somebody tried to make it with mechanized systems, but you can't make it this way. You make everything but focaccia. OK, now that we have stretched it, we give it the final touch: a pinch of coarse salt to flavor further. Yes, because if focaccia is not salty — are you afraid of salt?

Claudia: No. Well, throwing salt doesn't really bring good luck.

Ivan: No, no. This salt brings good luck.

Claudia: This salt, yes, OK.

Ivan: Good. So, now these are going to rest. We put them on the cart.

Claudia: OK. Once stretched, the focaccia will rest for another two hours. This is the third and final leavening, during which the focaccia soaks up all the flavors of the olive oil seasoning. Then it is cooked for 15 minutes at 230 degrees Celsius. The focaccia comes out of the oven with a golden crust on the outside, and soft on the inside.

Customer: You have to pretend to.

Ivan: No, it's for real. How do you want it? Well cooked? Warm?

Claudia: Warm. Yes, that's it.

Ivan: Is this enough?

Claudia: Yes, I'd say yes.

Ivan: Get a napkin, because it's definitely going to grease. For you.

Claudia: Wow. So warm. So nice.

Ivan: Ehm, you have to eat it the other way round.

Claudia: Oh, no!

Ivan: The cooked side —

Claudia: OK.

Ivan: Because the savory side goes on the tongue so the flavors mix instantly.

Claudia: Here it is eaten this way. To go, walking on the street.

Ivan: Passersby see it: "Oh, maybe I'll try it!" They come in and get a slice. They come in and get a slice. This is for you.