Erica De Mane

Recipe below: Focaccia with Tomato, Rosemary, and Pancetta

Last night all the restaurants and bars in New York City were ordered closed. This creates an especially strange feeling, since food places are the soul of the city, at least for me. No more hanging out. While I try to wrap my head around that development, I’ve decided it’s time to make dough, with a long, slow rise to turn suffocation into coziness.

It seems I’ve almost always got on hand canned tomatoes, and pancetta, and garlic, and smatterings of fresh supermarket herbs. I might not have milk (or Windex, for that matter), but at least I can usually make a pizza, or, as I decided this time, a focaccia. I like focaccia less spongy, more pizza-like than they make it in central Italy. Mine is similar to a New Haven tomato pie. No cheese; very sparse but highly flavored condimento on top. If we were still allowed to congregate, I could feed a crowd with it.

Focaccia with Tomato, Rosemary, and Pancetta

For the dough:

3 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 package instant yeast
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup warm water (around 115 degrees Fahrenheit)

For the top:

1 26-ounce can chopped tomatoes, very well drained (I used a 26-ounce box of Pomi chopped Italian tomatoes. I find that if I drain them really well and scatter them over the focaccia, it’s almost like using fresh. Really good taste.)
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 thick slice pancetta, chopped into little cubes
1 long sprig rosemary, the leaves chopped
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon allspice
A little piment d’Espelette pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
A few drops of Spanish sherry wine vinegar

To make the dough, put the flour in the bowl of a food processor. Add the sugar, salt, and yeast, and pulse a few times, just to mix everything. Add the olive oil and the water, and pulse until it all comes together in a ball.

Dump the dough out onto a floured work surface, and knead it until it’s smooth, about 5 minutes.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover it with a towel, and let it sit until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Punch down the dough, and then flatten it and press it out onto an oiled baking sheet. It should pretty much cover the entire pan, but it doesn’t need to go to the ends. Press down with your fingertips over the surface of the dough to form little indentations everywhere. Let it sit for about 45 minutes so it can rise a bit.

In the meantime, mix all the ingredients for the topping together in a small bowl, seasoning well with the salt and black pepper and Espelette.

When the dough has risen again, smear the tomato mixture over the top. Bake until the rim has browned, about 12 minutes or so. Serve hot or warm, cut into small squares,