Frankly Fantastic Pesto Focaccia
A light, bubbly, irresistible staple for your spring picnics
Hello my dears, I hope you’ve been having a lovely week so far. Mine has been swallowed up mostly by mumming and managing our renovation (not to be confused with momaging), which is really going all guns blazing. I’m project managing and — sort of — designing, though I’ve had some really amazing help from a couple of very talented friends who know far more about that stuff than I. But this has been a major learning curve and one of the biggest learnings from the past few weeks is that it’s essentially a full time job right now, on top of my other job(s).
Please know that I am not complaining, I’ve wanted to do this for as long as I can remember, and having the opportunity to do so is a massive and massively cherished privilege. Not going to lie, as the budget dwindles, the move deadline inches ever closer, and we are still very much in the build stages, my stomach lurches with every passing day. But every morning I try to remember that this is a dream I’ve had for a very long time (along with our plan to move to the sea) and I try and find a little distance in the midst of fretting and making ‘all the decisions’ to relish and take joy in the process. I only plan on doing this once, so I’ve absolutely got to make the most of it. Honestly, it feels a little weird to share photos of the inside of our house/building site on the internet, but I know some of you are quite invested in this process, and I want to give you a sneak peak, so I’m sharing a couple of images below for paid subs. Anyone else in the midst of, or planning a renovation right now? I’d love to hear from you.
As May is very much in full swing, I wanted to come at you with a weekend baking project: a favourite focaccia recipe of mine that I feel is deserving of a place in your next picnic, or indeed, at your next shared supper or lunch with pals. It’s a pretty simple, but wonderfully light and bubbly pesto focaccia recipe, adapted from a recipe I perfected a few years ago for the Sunday Times. I made it for friends for dinner a few weeks ago and also this week for us and to share with our builders, who need fuelling at every opportunity.
I love making bread. Before children, bread making was very much a part of my weekly routine, and I used to make loads of sourdough (solid recipe for the that in The Joyful Home Cook, FYI), but I also got very into making focaccia, which is just so pleasing to make at home, with its beautiful bubbles of dough, and a really nice one to do with kids who love sticking their little fingers in the sticky dimples, a la the below video.
I think focaccia is especially nice in spring and going into summer, when you can really mix up the toppings and fillings and make a loaf that will serve you very well at gatherings and picnics. And yeah, it’s seriously impressive to suddenly produce a loaf of bubbly bread you’ve made yourself with an insouciant, “oh, and I made focaccia”.
I’ve made this version with a really lovely pesto drizzle which gets pressed into the dough, making it lightly green tinged and lovely and fragrant. I mean, who doesn’t love focaccia and pesto together? If you are still in wild garlic mode, it would be totally gorgeous with wild garlic pesto (find my recipe here) and I dream about a sandwich made with this loaf layered up with yet more pesto spread on the base, then torn buffalo mozzarella, mortadella or parma ham, sliced jarred artichokes, finely sliced red onion and chilli mayo. It’s also be lovely with squishy roasted aubergine, charred tenderstem or purple sprouting broccoli, romesco sauce and shavings of parmesan. Oh the possibilities are quite frankly endless, and I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions in the comments or over on chat. As always, please let me know how you get on with the recipe, which I’ve shared below in a handy printable PDF format, as usual.
This focaccia method has a simple extra step that really makes it sing, in that it’s always going to produce a bubbling, light, bouncy loaf that you can serve cut into chunks for dipping in oil and vinegar, or slice up for next-level sandwiches.