Focaccia and a delicious Bruschetta

This week for Bread Baker’s Apprentice we made Focaccia. I’ve made Focaccia Bread about a million times in my life and it is one of my favorite breads. It’s quick and easy and makes a great last minute addition to any meal and it’s very versatile. You can top with a large variety of items like cheese, basil, tomatoes and make a pizza type bread. Or you can slice it horizontally and toast it for the base for Eggs Benedict or a toasted tuna sandwich. I’ve used it for hamburger buns and even popped it under the broiler for a great garlic bread!

I always add about 1/2 cup sourdough starter to my Focaccia dough but decided to use fresh yeast instead. And I dearly love using fresh yeast! Also I added 1/2 cup mashed potato. The dough was silky smooth and so easy to work with and it rose beautifully!

Our tomatoes are slowly starting to come in and I was going to make BBLTs (Basil, Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato) sandwiches with the Focaccia but then decided to whip up some Bruschetta instead. See Recipe and **Note below.

Bruschetta with Spinach and infused Garlic
Recipe developed by Big-Black-Dog

4-5 plum tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/2 lb spinach, cleaned and torn into small pieces
1/4-1/2 c. shredded Parmesan
8-10 fresh Basil leaves, torn into small pieces
Abt 15 fresh Tarragon leaves, torn into small pieces
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 large garlic cloves
1/4 c. EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

In a small pan heat the EVOO until just warm. Add the cloves of garlic and simmer until the garlic is just golden brown. Remove garlic and set the oil aside to cool. On a cutting board smash the garlic with a fork.

In a small bowl add the tomatoes, spinach, Parmesan, Basil, Tarragon, smashed garlic and cooled EVOO and blend. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let this sit for at least 30 minutes so the flavors set.

**Note: I cut the Focaccia into about 3-5″ pieces and then cut each piece horizontally. On a foil lined baking sheet lay out the sliced Focaccia and top each piece with Bruschetta. Set your oven on Broil and pop the Focaccia/Bruschetta under the broiler for about 5 minutes. Be careful because this will burn very quickly.

Google Books has the entire book, “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread”, by Peter Reinhart, scanned and you can find the recipe on Page 159 by clicking here.

Please feel free to visit some fellow BBA’ers and see their interpretation of this recipe.

Terri of Mustang Terri
Nico of Nico’s Blog
Sally of Bewitching Kitchen
Txfarmer at Txfarmer (blog is in Chinese)

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Tagged as: Focaccia, Tomato, Tomatoes