Focaccia with cherry tomatoes and oregano

This wonderfully light and fluffy Italian focaccia with juicy cherry tomatoes and Italian oregano is absolutely delicious. Crispy on the outside and deliciously soft and chewy on the inside, it’s bound to become one of your favourites! Aromatic oregano and crunchy sea salt perfectly complement the sweet little cherry tomatoes embedded in the crust. It’s a winner every time!

It’s perfect as an appetiser, along with a glass of Prosecco before dinner or as part of a buffet spread. It’s great for a picnic during the summer or as an accompaniment to a salad at lunchtime. Your hungry kids will love it as an afternoon snack! I often serve it with a plate of vegetables instead of bread. This recipe is naturally vegan and is so easy to make! The ingredients are very similar to those of a pizza, but the quantities and methods are different, and, of course, there is no cheese or tomato sauce on focaccia.

How this recipe came to be

I learnt how to make focaccia (and bread and pizza) during the first Covid 19 lockdown. Before that, I never made my own bread or focaccia. There wasn’t really time. I did make pizza, but only with the ready-to-use fresh pizza dough that you can buy in supermarkets in Italy.

I don’t have fond memories of those worrying times by any means. But the pandemic was a catalyst in many ways, and there were lots of positives up for grabs. I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands, and I made use of it by spending more time outdoors, walking in the woods and surrounding countryside. Here in Switzerland, we were allowed to do that.

Spending time in close contact with nature, listening to sounds that would normally be drowned out by the noise of traffic and human activity, makes you feel good. It also gets you thinking. Deep thinking. To cut a long story short, that’s how I became vegan. If you’re interested in reading more about the benefits of spending time in nature, there’s an article about it in Healthline.

I also spent more time in the kitchen, experimenting and making things I’d never made before. Like sourdough bread and focaccia. I couldn’t go to Italy, which was a weird feeling because I can literally see the border from where I live. So that meant no more pizza, no more cheap shopping on the other side of the border, no more trips to the sea and, heaven forbid, no more sailing. Thank goodness there was this indulgent, comforting cherry tomato and oregano focaccia to keep me distracted!

Tips on how to make great focaccia with cherry tomatoes and oregano

There are a couple of things to remember when making any kind of focaccia bread. Allow yourself a couple of hours to make it because the dough needs time to rise. Secondly, bear in mind that when there aren’t many ingredients in a recipe, it’s fundamental to use quality ingredients! This applies to this focaccia too. Only use coarse, if possible unrefined sea salt and good quality extra virgin olive oil. Choose your tomatoes carefully, they should be firm but not hard or too overripe.

You’ll need fresh yeast for this recipe. If you prefer to use dried yeast, see the note at the foot of the recipe card. To knead the dough, you can use a mixer or knead it by hand – it really isn’t difficult at all. Focaccia bread has these characteristic little dents in it. This effect is achieved by poking deep holes in the dough with your fingers, right down to the baking sheet. Just follow my step-by-step instructions, and you’ll get it the right first time! I know you’ll love this recipe!

The right-sized tin for your focaccia with cherry tomatoes and oregano

First of all, use the right-sized tin! The quantities stated in the recipe card below are for a 26-28 cm diameter tin. If your tin is a different size, see the note at the foot of the recipe card – you’ll find a link to a website that calculates everything for you, automatically reducing or increasing the quantities proportionally to the size of the tin you’ll be using!

How to make focaccia dough

Focaccia dough is surprisingly simple to make. You can use plain all-purpose flour for this recipe. In Italy, you can buy flour specifically for making focaccia. It’s usually a strong bread flour mixed with a small percentage of semola rimacinata, which is a very fine type of semolina flour. I use a strong bread flour because I find it gives better results.

For the exact quantities of all the ingredients, see the recipe card below.

First of all, sift the flour and salt into a bowl and set aside.

Measure or weigh the water and make sure that it is only lukewarm before pouring it into a jug and adding the fresh yeast and sugar.

If the water is too warm, it will kill the yeast, and your dough won’t rise. You can help the yeast to dissolve by putting your fingers in the jug and mixing it with your fingertips.

Once the yeast has dissolved, pour it into the bowl with the flour and salt. Then add the oil.

Mix the ingredients by hand, with a spatula, or in an electric dough mixer until the dough comes together. If you have weighed your ingredients precisely, your dough should be perfect!

What to do if your dough is too dry or too wet

Allow the dough time to come together properly. It is possible that one particular flour has slightly different water-absorbing properties from another so if it really is too dry, add a teaspoon of water at a time until you reach the right consistency. When the dough is of the correct consistency, it will stick very slightly to your hands. However, if the dough is excessively wet, add a teaspoon of flour and knead it in well before adding any more. Repeat if necessary until the dough is just right.

How to knead focaccia dough

This is so simple. Either use your dough mixer or knead it by hand for 5 to 10 minutes on a clean worktop. When the dough is smooth and elastic, shape it into a ball.

First dough rise

Grease a bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil. The bowl you used for mixing the ingredients is fine. Put the ball of dough in the bottom of the bowl. The oil will prevent it from sticking. Cover the bowl with a silicone lid or cling film and leave it in a warm place for an hour. The lid or cling film is to prevent the dough from drying out on top.

The dough will rise better in a warm place. In summer, room temperature is just fine. In winter, you could place it near a radiator or in front of a sunny window. Otherwise, you could turn on your oven for a minute so that the temperature is similar to that of a warm room. Don’t forget to turn it off again straightaway, though, before you put the dough in! After an hour, your dough should have risen considerably, at least double the initial volume. Leave it a little longer if necessary.

Second dough rise

Grease a round baking tray with some olive oil. Turn the bowl with the dough in upside down and tip the dough directly onto the greased baking sheet. A quick shake will free it from the bottom of the bowl.

Very carefully spread the dough out with your fingertips until it uniformly fills the tray. Try not to flatten it or knock the air bubbles out of it. A gentle movement of the fingertips from the centre outwards will do the job! Cover with cling film again and let the dough continue to rise for another 20 minutes.

How to bake focaccia with cherry tomatoes and oregano

Preheat the oven to 210 °C.

Crush some coarse, unrefined sea salt with a mortar and pestle or with the back of a spoon.

Uncover the dough and wet your fingertips. Use your middle finger to poke deep dents all the way down to the bottom of the baking tray. I usually make an outer circle of 12 holes, an inner circle of 6 and a hole in the centre. Imagine the twelve points of a clock for the outer circle. Start with 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock, then 3 and 9, and so on. That way, it’ll be easier to get even spacing between the holes. Otherwise, you can put them on randomly.

Drizzle the focaccia with some olive oil and use your fingertips to gently spread it all over the surface.

Wash the cherry tomatoes and slice them in half across the middle, horizontally rather than vertically, so that the core remains invisible underneath. You can choose whether to put the tomatoes in alternate holes or one in each hole. I love juicy little cherry tomatoes, so I put one in each hole!

Sprinkle with the crushed coarse sea salt and oregano.

Put the focaccia onto a very hot tray (solid tray, not a rack) and place the tray in the centre of the oven.

Bake for approx. 20 minutes or until the focaccia is slightly golden and cooked through.

Remove from the oven and drizzle some more extra virgin olive oil all over the focaccia.

How to serve focaccia with cherry tomatoes and oregano

Leave your focaccia to stand for 5 minutes before trying to cut it. Then, slice it and serve it warm or cold. Cherry tomato and oregano focaccia is great as an appetiser with a glass of prosecco or your favourite wine. Take it on a picnic or to the beach. Kids adore it – give it to them as a snack. Serve it with vegetables, salad or soup instead of bread. It’s also immensely popular on a buffet table where people can use it to mop up dips and eat with grilled or roasted vegetables and lots of other things.

How to store focaccia

I seriously doubt that you’ll have any leftovers, but if you want to keep some for another day, put it in an airtight container in the fridge where it will keep for 3 – 4 days. You can also freeze focaccia – it will keep well for a couple of weeks in a domestic freezer. Of course, technically, it is possible to freeze it for much longer, but I find that bread and focaccia don’t keep well for long periods in the freezer. Baking products tend to suffer from freezer burn, which ultimately changes the texture of the food.

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