Focaccia Rustica (Country Focaccia with Red Pepper Toppin

This focaccia starts with a simple trick that changes everything: warming crushed garlic in olive oil until it just starts to brown, then discarding the cloves. What’s left is a fragrant, garlic-infused oil that flavors the entire dough without any raw garlic bite or burnt bits.

The dough itself is straightforward. Flour, water, yeast, salt, and chopped sage kneaded by hand for 6 to 8 minutes. Two rises give it that airy, open crumb with big bubbles, and dimpling the surface with oiled fingertips creates the classic focaccia landscape of hills and valleys that crisp differently in the oven.

The topping is where this goes from good bread to a meal. Roasted red peppers peeled and sliced thin, red onions sauteed low and slow for 25 minutes until they’re sweet and silky, fresh tomatoes seeded and squeezed dry, all scattered over the puffy dough with basil and salt.

Kitchen Tips

• Stretch the dough in stages. Push it out, let it relax 15 minutes, then stretch again. Forcing it tears the gluten and gives you thin spots that burn.
• Saute the onions over genuinely low heat for the full 25 minutes. They should be translucent and jammy, not browned.
• Seed and squeeze the tomatoes dry before topping. Wet tomatoes release juice during baking and make the dough soggy underneath.
• Serve at room temperature. Focaccia’s texture is best when it’s cooled enough for the crumb to set but the olive oil still tastes fragrant.

Variations

• Olive and rosemary: Skip the pepper topping and press Kalamata olives and rosemary needles into the dimpled dough for a simpler, classic focaccia.
• Cherry tomato: Use halved cherry tomatoes pressed cut-side down into the dough instead of chopped fresh tomatoes for a prettier presentation.
• Cheese focaccia: Scatter grated Pecorino Romano over the top during the last 5 minutes of baking for a salty, crispy cheese crust.