For her, this focaccia also captures the taste of her homeland. And the realisation that something special can be created from simple, good-quality ingredients. After all, a focaccia doesn’t need much: flour, yeast, olive oil, salt, rosemary, olives and sun-dried tomatoes. As always, it all comes down to the quality of the ingredients and the right preparation.
Melanie Siller highlights two points in particular:
- Use high-quality olive oil
- Mix the salt with the flour first and never add it directly to the yeast. Otherwise, the yeast loses its effectiveness
After an hour’s rest, she adds Taggiasca olives, sun-dried tomatoes, sea salt, finely chopped rosemary and olive oil to the dough. It is important that the dough is not only given sufficient time to rest, but is also stretched and folded several times. Once the desired elasticity and stability have been achieved, it can be left to rise fully and then baked. The focaccia is first baked for ten minutes at 220 degrees. This makes the dough nice and light. Then bake for a further ten minutes at 200 degrees to achieve a golden-brown crust.
The result is a treat for the eyes and the palate: a crispy crust, a soft centre and little indentations where aromatic oil collects. That’s exactly how a good focaccia should be: simple, Italian and full of flavour. And for Melanie Siller, it’s also full of memories of her South Tyrolean homeland. But for everyone else, it’s the perfect accompaniment to a delicious asparagus soup.
