RECIPE / RALPH SCHELLING

Focaccia with datterini tomatoes

Our Swiss chef offers a simple focaccia recipe that’s divine with ripe tomatoes – but treat this as a starting point rather than the final version. Add some dried marjoram, thyme or rosemary if you fancy. You can also freeze and save the dough before baking, or switch the flour for wholemeal and the yeast for a sourdough starter.

• Ingredients: Serves 8 as a starter
• 40 g baker’s yeast
• 500 ml lukewarm water
• 1 kg plain white flour
• 20 g table salt
• 150 ml olive oil
• 100 g fresh datterini tomatoes
• Coarse sea salt

• Method
• 1. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water.
• 2. Pour the flour into a mixing bowl. Add the water, table salt and 50ml of the olive oil, and combine.
• 3. Once combined, mix in a food processor with a dough hook for a minute or two (or knead by hand for about 5 minutes) until the dough is smooth and elastic.
• 4. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise at room temperature for no less than an hour.
• 5. Preheat oven to 240C. Pour another 50ml of the olive oil onto a lined, 23cm x 33cm x 5cm baking tray and spread the dough to a thickness of about half a centimetre. Press tomatoes at regular lengths almost completely into the dough (say every 5cm or 6cm).
• 6. Drizzle over the remaining 50ml of olive oil and a teaspoon of the coarse sea salt, evenly.
• 7. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the bread begins to brown and the tomatoes pucker. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving lukewarm.