Making Focaccia with the Olive Oil Dough Recipe (171 Calories per serving)

I love pizza, but I hate the amount of salt put in carry-out, and take-and-bake, pizza.  I always wake up in the middle of the night, desperate for water, and wondering which salt lick I fell asleep against.  Man, it is awful, and truly unnecessary.

On top of that, add in all the processed garbage in the pizza, from the dough, to the sauce, to the variety of toppings, and no one knows what's really in those Frankenstein's monster of a pizza.

So, Kasi and I started making our own pizzas with the Olive Oil Dough (recipe here) for the crust, and the Big Sur Bakery & Restaurant Pasta Sauce (recipe here), as our pizza sauce.  We've been making a lot of these recently, including one I'll post about soon, but I, at least, am getting a little burned out, despite how ridiculously delicious they are.

So, I decided to try and make some basic Focaccia Bread (see recipe below) with the dough recipe.

I knew I wanted to top the Focaccia with onions, rosemary, and salt and pepper.  I had read that you need to saute the onions a little, to soften them first, or they will burn in the oven.  So, I sliced a quarter of an onion very thinly, and sauteed it in a tsp of olive oil, for less than 5 minutes - just until they softened, but didn't brown - and then setting them aside to cool.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

I then started preparing the Focaccia dough by taking the last quarter (1 serving) of the dough I had made, and refrigerated, last week, and sprinkled it with flour, placed it on a floured surface, and then formed it into a ball.  To form the ball, gently pull the dough between your hands, and tuck the ends in at the bottom.  Next, turn the dough a quarter of a turn, and repeat.  Continue doing this 4 or 5 times, until the top is smooth and elastic.

Place the ball back down on your surface, cover it, and let it rest for about 10 minutes.  After it has rested, press the ball flat with the bare palm of your hand.  Next, roll the tough out to about a half an inch thickness.

Place a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet, and place the rolled out dough in the middle of the cookie sheet.

Now, with a small fork lightly prick the surface of the dough all over.

Now is the time the toppings can be added.  Start with a light coating of the sauteed onion, leaving a small border around the edge, then sprinkle on the fresh rosemary, and dust it with some freshly ground pepper.

Next, sprinkle on some salt. I have some artisan salts that I like to use,  One is a Black Cyprus Sea Salt Flakes, and the other is a white, pyramid shaped, Bali Sea Salt.  My pink Himalayan salt is too finely ground to use on this, but I wish I had some coarse ground, because the pink would totally pop next to the black flake salt.

Finally drizzle a little, about 1 Tbs, of olive oil over the top, cover, and let the dough rise about 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes of rising has passed, pop the dough into the oven for 15 minutes, and sit back and enjoy the smells.

After 15 minutes, remove the Focaccia from the oven, and let cool about 20 minutes before slicing.

Eat, and enjoy!

Focaccia Bread

Ingredients:

1 serving           Olive Oil Dough (recipe here)
1/4                    Onion, thinly sliced, & sauteed until soft
1 tsp                 Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbs                Rosemary, fresh
To Taste           Coarse Salt
To Taste           Black Pepper, freshly ground
Drizzle              Extra Virgin Olive Oil