Cook Here and Now

Food at Slow Food's Golden Glass

Buongiorno. Although I went to Slow Food's Golden Glass event this past Sunday, I spent very little time tasting wine. How can this be? Who in their right mind skips free, top-quality wine? Well... I ran into several local producers - some new to me and some familiar faces - showing off their latest creations. There were so many excellent treats to sample and discuss that without even realizing it, my glass had been empty for almost two hours. Shocking, I know.

What I found at Slow Food's Golden Glass:

Pescadero's Harley Farms Goat Dairy
I've been a fan of Dee Harley and her flower-studded Van Goat chevre and goat ricotta for a long time. Right now the goats are munching on blackberry bushes, Canada thistle, poison oak and even poison hemlock, and it's giving the ricotta a distinctively sweet, floral scent (no itchiness involved). Try it before the season changes, and the goats move on to other plants.  She's also hosting farm tours and farm-to-table dinners in the farm's wooden, rustic barn: book ahead, because these fill up fast.

California's organic Apollo extra virgin olive oil
Let's be honest here: there are so many self-anointed 'specialty' olive oils around that knowing which one is actually worth your hard-earned cash isn't easy. The last thing I thought I was going to get excited about at a wine event is extra-virgin olive oil, but then I met Pablo Voizuk, an enthusiastic, kind-mannered gentleman from Buenos Aires. He's very confident in Apollo's California-grown oil: he knew that if I smelled it, I'd want to have it. After all the labor I put into making organic home-baked breads, you know I wouldn't put just anything on them - but these are the kind of aromatic olive oils that can stand up to hearty, crusty bread.

• The Sierra needs robust flavors to balance its herbal, slightly bitter Tuscan-style aroma. A suitable match would be wheat bread, beef stew, a braised rabbit, or a Moroccan olive and oranges salad.
• The Barouni is made with a variety of olive originally from Tunisia. The trees were planted in California some 40 years ago and abandoned - and I'm so glad they found them. This oil has a pronounced pungency that comes back to your nose about ten seconds after you swallow it, slowly unfolding layers of cumin and pepper. I can't wait to sprinkle some of this one on a nice rack of lamb or rustic Italian loaf.

You can find Apollo's olive oil at Whole Foods, Rainbow, or at Bay Area farmers markets.

Boccalone's porchetta
Now I'm not such a fan of their salame and their standard Italian cured meats - their texture and flavor are not well-developed yet. But complimenti to them for branching off into Italian specialties like lardo (cured lard) and porchetta: a fully cooked pig that's gutted, boned, arranged carefully into layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin, then rolled, spitted, and roasted, traditionally over wood.

The Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust tour for chefs
My favorite find for the day: I'm going on the 29th from 9:30-1:30 to tour Brentwood-area farms - and I'm really looking forward to the Blenheim apricots. Let me know if you want to come along, to visit and sample from Frog Hollow farms, Brookside farms, Dwelley farms and Smith family farms.

MyFarm
Did you know we have 102 mini-farms in San Francisco's backyards? You can be the 103rd:  MyFarm will help you set up and maintain your backyard orchard, and share what you produce through a citywide CSA. How great is that?

Enjoy!
Marco Flavio

Two new Farmers Markets: Castro and Island Earth (Metreon)

Buongiorno. Summer is here and for lucky San Franciscans, it's easier than ever to get weekly groceries farm-fresh from the producers: the Island Earth Farmers Market has opened inside the Metreon, and the Castro Farmers Market is open after work.

The Castro Farmers Market (see above) takes place at Noe and Market 4-7pm every Wednesday from now until October 28th, rain or shine. This market is as fresh and funky as the neighborhood that hosts it, with lush displays of fresh produce, three stands of flowers and plants, my favorite California extra-virgin olive oil from Bariani and a couple of bakeries. All this, plus better people-watching than you get on a hot day at Café Flore.

The Island Earth Farmers Market is right on the ground floor of the Metreon building at 4th and Mission, facing Yerba Buena Gardens (where the Discovery Channel store used to be). This one runs year-round, 10am-8pm Monday - Saturday and Sunday 10am-7pm - pretty handy for lunchtime picnics, or a quick dinner before the movies. Besides produce, there are organic wine tastings, bakeries, orchid growers, and food stalls offering bargain organic dim sum, empanadas and falafel.

From the Castro Farmers Market:

From the Island Earth Farmers Market:

 

Enjoy!
Marco Flavio

 

NorCal winners at the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest: Marin French Cheese Company

Buongiorno. Some days I feel extremely lucky to live in Northern California - usually when I'm eating local food. When something is truly extraordinary, I can't keep it to myself, because great food is even better when it's shared. The Marin French Cheese Company in Petaluma has been producing some very exciting cheeses: at the United States Championship Cheese Contest 10 days ago their Rouge et Noir Le Petite Chevre Bleu won Best of Class in Mold-Ripened Goat Cheese, and the Second Place Runner up was their Le Petit Chevre, so I promptly sent in my congratulations and organized a small group tasting.

I served eight cheeses, and these four were the runaway hits. See what you think - just remember to leave your cheeses out of the fridge for at least six hours before serving, because they need to be at room temperature for their flavors to bloom and soften up to the right creamy texture.

Rouge et Noir — Le Petite Chevre Bleu
An earthy, creamy blue goat's milk cheese with Roquefort blue veins. Essence of white truffle immediately sent me back for more, but everyone else had the same idea: it disappeared quickly. Pair it with that good bottle of Dry Creek Syrah you've been saving a special occasion: this is it.

Rouge et Noir — Le Petite Chevre
This Second Place Runner up is a milder goat's milk cheese for Brie eaters ready to make the transition but but fearing the jump. No blue veins here, but still the flavor hangs around in the nose a while, with just a light tang of goat's milk. The right cheese for a night in front of a fireplace, with comfortable slippers and a sleeping pet.

Rouge et Noir — Mélange Brie
No punches are held back for this goat and cow's milk multi-award winner: extremely ripe, bold, and slightly tangy, bang on the nose. The  woodsy finish hangs around awhile too, like rain in the forest. Slather a thin slice of bread with a hefty slab, insert in mouth, narrow the eyes, and exhale slowly through the nose. Whooo, watery eyes, great flavor.

Rouge et Noir — Mélange Camembert
This one's the mild-mannered, bookwormish sibling of the Mélange Brie - a Pinot Noir to the Brie's Cabernet. But don't be fooled: great rewards await those who take the time to discover its subtler walnut notes, very light tang, and a buttery texture that will have you wonder why anybody would badmouth fats. Shocking.

Enjoy! How could you not?

Marco Flavio

San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition 2009: NorCal report

Buongiorno. This past Saturday I joined some very happy sold-out crowds at Fort Mason sampling the winners of the prestigious San Francisco Chronicle wine competition. I wanted to see how my favorite NorCal winemakers fared among the stiff competition: 4,235 wine entries from 1,500 US wineries judged blind by 55 industry experts. New releases and first-time discoveries made for a truly memorable event - you just can't find this level of quality across the board under one roof elsewhere. I have to tell you, if you enjoy wine, make sure to get your tickets at least two weeks early next year.

First of all, I want to thank the winemakers who master a tricky craft to create these wines, and a special thanks to the NorCal producers: you make my choice to drink only local vintages very easy. There are some excellent California and Italian varietals growing in Sonoma these days, so I don't mind waiting to drink Italian until my annual trips home. To my 9 favorite award-winning local vintages I say: Salute!

Enjoy!
Marco Flavio

Muscardini Cellars Sangiovese, Dry Creek Valley, 2006. This wine begs for food: cinnamon and raspberries, with a whiff of tobacco and very soft tannins that can stand up to a robust Italian first course without flinching. Plus, Michael is always so excited to talk about wine, he wins me over every time. We discovered this small-production Sangiovese visiting his new Kenwood tasting room a couple months ago and stocked up before the big win: nick of time! Grazie for this one, Michael.

Caliza Winery Syrah, Russell Family vineyards, 2006. A full-bodied, aromatic red that's like a roadside blackberry bush on an hot August day: ripe and ready. Only 200 cases were produced, and you can only get it from the winery. This one accompanies well-caramelized roasts or braises with wild mushrooms: a carnivore's favorite winter wine.

Canihan Family Cellars Exuberance Syrah, Sonoma Valley, 2006. Organically farmed and robust yet very silky, with raspberries and white pepper rounding out the aromas. A long finish reminds you who's in charge: hint hint, it's not the food.

Claudia Springs Zinfandel, Mendocino Ridge, Valenti Ranch, 2006 and signature Zinfandel, 2006. I have to say, I tried at least three different Zins from Claudia Springs, and each was completely different but highly worthwhile. They're produced in small batches and priced to sell out: : the 2006 Zin is $22. Buy directly from the winery while you can...

Quivira Vineyards Syrah, Dry Creek Valley, Wine Creek ranch, 2006. Only 244 cases of this inky, intense Demeter-certified biodynamic beauty were produced. This cedar- and violet-scented new release is available directly from the winery at $28 a bottle: such a steal.

Ottimino Vineyards Zinfandel, Von Weidlich Vineyard, 2005. A versatile Zin from Russian River, with a deep black cherry flavor perked up with a zing of white pepper. In Italian translation, the name has a double meaning: "the eighth," but also "the little exceptional one." I'll second that.

Claiborne & Churchill Pinot Gris, Central Coast. At the event, people were going for the reds and overlooking some exceptional whites. This well-structured, very dry Alsatian-style Pinot Gris is a welcome exception to the industrial-standard sweet white Zin. This would be ideal paired with the last Dungeness crab of the season, or a rich egg dish with Hollandaise sauce for Sunday brunch. The prices are better for whites too: this one goes for $12-18 a bottle, depending on where you buy it.

Amazon Ranch Viognier, Damiano Vineyard, 2008. Viognier is the perfect go-to white for weeknight dinners, and this one delivers strong mineral notes followed by orange and lemon zest. Enjoy it with a risotto, and use it in the recipe as well to balance the creaminess of risotto. Score it for $10.80 a bottle when you buy a case from the winery.

Dulcis in fundo (the sweetest comes last): Geyser Peak Winery Barrel Aged Tawny Port was a Sweepstakes winner: no small feat, since this honor is given to only six wines. Wellington Vineyards white port is still my favorite Port, but this balanced blast of butterscotch, vanilla and yes, bananas holds its own with salted caramels or chocolate or as dessert. Good for Geyser Peak: they're a major producer, but they're still trying daring new small-production wines. Try this port with dark chocolate gelato, and thank me later.

Oh, one last thing: for you pâté lovers, Marcel et Henri's South San Francisco offerings are a must-try. People were swarming around the pork with truffles, but I was just as impressed with the country-style pork with burgundy wine and the coarse-textured venison pâté with burgundy wine and juniper berries. My favorite? Coarse duck with cognac.

Enjoy and cin-cin!
Marco Flavio

ZAP Zinfandel Festival 2009: 7 easy picks

Buongiorno -- the ZAP event in Fort Mason, San Francisco was exceptional this year: over 275 wineries spread out over two pavilions, and a very happy, slightly soused crowd numbering in the thousands. If you think of Zin as a one-note, berry-forward, monodimensional wine, you missed a major educational opportunity this past weekend. The range of Zins hit the extremes, ranging from Central Coast jam in a bottle to Amador County and Dry Creek Valley Zins featuring subtle fruit, some flinty attitudes, and long-distance tannins that could make certain Napa Cabs eat their Rutherford dust. There really is a Zin to match every Californian character, and that's saying something.

Many thanks to all of the producers who brought us such wildly imaginative interpretations of this classic Californian wine, and bravo to those who enthusiastically explained what makes their Zin exceptional. Choosing a small selection from the multitude of Zins wasn't easy, but a few really stood out for me.

For starters: Truett-Hurst's 2006 Red Rooster Zin from Dry Creek Valley. This spicy, crisp Zin is the pride of a brave new biodynamic winery, featuring light strawberry and raspberry notes, a hint of white pepper, and long, feathery tannins to tickle the palate. This is an obvious winner with strong vegetarian dishes or juicy Muscovy duck breast seared in a cast-iron skillet.

Stryker Vineyards 2006 Alexander Valley Estate Old Vine Zinfandel is a robust (15.2% alcohol) sweetheart of a Zin with vanilla and caramel ramping up to a pumpkin pie-spice finish. There were only 198 cases produced, and still it's only $26 a bottle - a great value.

Montevina Terra d'Oro 2006 Zinfandel from Amador County is a newly-released, well-balanced Zin with molasses, plum and caramel notes that could hold its own against a chipotle-based dish or mu shu pork with plum sauce.

Volante Vineyards' 2006 Bay Point of View Zin from McCoy Vineyards in Sonoma County was decisive, bold, an exclamation point on your meal. Chuck McCoy's vineyards rise from the fog above the Bay to yield a smoky, peppery wine where berries are almost an afterthought. A long finish suits strong meat dishes (hello, venison) or those blue cheeses that make the faint-of-nose recoil.

Klinker Brick 2006 Old Vine Zinfandel from Lodi is a more traditional Zin, ollalieberry- and plum-forward yet still meticulously balanced with a long, tapering finish. When you use strong pancetta to flavor your legumes, let this bottle round out the dish for you.

Fanucchi Vineyards 2005 Old Vine Zinfandel is high in alcohol but still nuanced, with cherry undertones and moderate tannins. This one makes a killer gift for a Zin snob: you can only get it through the winery or its website.

EOS Estate Winery Zinfandel Port from Paso Robles is a rich, moderately sweet Port that begs to be paired with chocolates: think plums first, mocha next, and cinnamon on the finish. A promising candidate for our next NorCal chocolate and wines pairing event ...

Cin-cin - enjoy!
Marco Flavio

Winter Fancy Food show: NorCal report

Buongiorno - just got back from the Fancy Food Show at San Francisco's Moscone Center with some serious finds! The producers have outdone themselves -  now it's up to us, the cooks, to do justice to these amazing ingredients. I'm already plotting some menus, and future Cook Here & Now pairings...

Here the foods I fell madly in love with at the Fancy Food Show:

Petaluma's Rouge et Noir Triple Creme Brie (see above) had me at bonjour. They also make French-style Camembert and Blue in our own backyard, but the Brie was Proustian - I actually ran across the convention floor just to sample it again before the show ended. The flavors are so layered, complex and creamy, it reminded me of the kind of Brie the French never export. In fact, this Rouge et Noir beat the French at the 2005 World Cheese Awards in London ... sacre bleu! Try it and thank me.

Redwood Hill Farms Camellia from Sonoma is a huge crowd-pleaser: a rich but mild Camembert-style goat cheese from a pioneering Certified Humane cheese-maker, a family-owned operation for over 40 years. Pair it with an easygoing, redfruit Russian River Pinot Noir.

Sustainable Tsar Nicoulai California-raised caviar is a decadent, guilt-free treat: bursts of briny, tangy intensity, all sustainably farmed. Considering that all 27 species of sturgeon are on the endangered species list and this is one of the first 100% sustainable hatcheries worldwide, I say: all hail the Tsar. My favorite product of theirs is the Vanilla-infused trout roe  - it's a well known fact among my friends that I'm developing a vanilla problem. Look for the Tsar soon at one of our upcoming tastings...

How can you follow locally produced caviar, you say? With SF's newest local chocolate, naturally. Tcho is based on Pier 17 and labels their bars according to a few basic flavor principles: fruity, nutty, etc. I was very taken with their "chocolatey" one. Rubust as coffee, with a slow-melting, long-lasting velvety mouth-feel like a good Pinot.

Shout out to the South Bay: look out for Lula's Chocolates. This specialty brand is new but the chocolate is a family tradition, since the chocolatier's grandmother was a chocolate maker. My favorite was the array of truffles with 8 different sea salts arranged in the long box. Their enthusiastic attitude about the work they're doing shows in the flavor.

Maisie Jane's sustainably farmed, organic almonds from Chico. The tamari ones are just right: slightly salty with extra umami to make them the perfect snack.

Corto Olive Oil from Lodi: a lush, mild-flavored, versatile Californian olive oil. Instead of bitter Tuscan style oils, try this one for seafood and other cooking that requires a more delicate approach. Better still: the price point is even cheaper than bland supermarket varieties, at about $9.95/liter retail.

I also found two non-California producers introducing superior ingredients to the market - and since our readers are now across the country and their stories are so inspiring, I had to tell you about them.

Timeless USDA certified organic legumes from Montana were familiar to me, since they produce the lentils I buy at Rainbow (haven't been able to find California lentils). But the big find today was black chickpeas - Alison wants to use it to make some extreme hummous. They're pioneering organic varietals and keeping coming up with new crops - I'm keeping an eye out for those garbanzos and organic red barley at the Cheese Board and Rainbow.

Dulcis in fundo (saving the sweetest for last): Herb and Kathy Eckhouse's La Quercia artisanal cured meats from Norwalk, Iowa. I couldn't believe these guys were American after I sampled their products - this meat reminded me of home. Aha! Turns out they lived 3 years in Parma (the cured-meat capital of Italy) and found their calling: to elevate American meat-curing with artisanal meats that make an Italian salivate at first whiff. Humanely and sustainably raised pork, a wide selection of Italian-style cured meats, and most importantly, the first American-made coppa and prosciutto worthy of the name (sorry Fra' Mani and Boccalone, no contest here). Grazie Herb and Kathy!

Speaking of flavors that transport me back home: I found the  Urbani Tartufi White Truffle oil I use at our place in Italy from California distributor (and fellow Roman) Francesco Mazzini, and stocked up. I know, I know, it takes fuel to get it here, but this pungent Perugia white truffle has been wildcrafted and artisanally produced in the same way for over 100 years - and since a bottle is smaller than one of those travel-sized hotel shampoos, it'll hardly add a pinky toe to my carbon footprint. I've missed it so much, I'm bringing an empty suitcase next time I go to Italy... luggage fees be damned.

 

Enjoy!
Marco Flavio

Sustainable Seafood alert: Monterey Bay Aquarium iPhone app and regional guides

Yes, it's even easier now to identify sustainable seafood: the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch 2009 guide is now available on your iPhone. Download it from iTunes by clicking here.

Also, there are now 6 different 2009 Sustainable Seafood guides, one for every U.S. region. Go and download one for your area.

Enjoy!
Marco Flavio

Introducing: Foodie Trade

Buongiorno,
Now that summer travels are winding down and Slow Food Nation is over, I've been thinking about what's next, and here it is: Foodie Trade.

Most of us in this group spend more time in the kitchen in a week than most Americans do in a month, and we cook up a lot of food. I don't know about you, but I'm often left with a lot of extra jam or vanilla beans I bought bulk to get a good price. As tasty as it may be, it's more than we can eat, and I don't always have the time to invite people over to polish it off.

"Give it to me!" you're thinking. My thoughts exactly: I'm starting a section in our Forum where you can trade tasty stuff you've made for tasty stuff other people made. This way we can benefit from everybody's culinary skills, and not feel bad at the real possibility of the delicious food we produced going to waste.

Here's how it works: I just cased 30 sausages and I have 10 to spare, which need to be eaten within 2 months after they're frozen. So on the Forum I'll post in the Food Trade section that I have 10 sausages to trade. You can contact me in the Forum and tell me that you have a few jars of home-made tomato sauce to trade, and we'll swap sausages for tomatoes.

I will also post (and encourage you to do as well) ingredients that may be available in bulk, to see if others are interested in sharing the cost - not to mention being more eco-friendly by cutting down on shipping and packaging. For example: I've just been contacted by a woman who sells free-range lambs, but I can't buy even half  by myself. Where would I put it?! Maybe others may want to go in on it,so we can get the absolute best meat directly from the farmer, for a better deal where the producer gets more of the end price.

So let me be the first to start... go check out the Forum and see what I'm trading.
A presto!
Marco Flavio

Cross-pollinate your pantry.

I've always resented the annoying cable TV chefs that introduce an elaborate
dish or a 3-page recipe by saying: "I just go to the market and let the
ingredients speak to me." Yeah, I've tried that. I listened, but usually
what I hear is the sound of garbage trucks whizzing past on the freeway and
children clamoring for Kettle corn. Not quite the perfect ingredients for
the dinner party I had in mind.

When I'm really lucky at the farmers market, the ingredients speak to me in
a language I don't even understand yet. You know how it is: The fog of sleep
has barely lifted when you're greeted by the sight of some vegetable that
seems newly arrived from Mars. The lumpy item is a weirdly luminous shade of
green, smells vaguely of ginger, and hey, is that fur?

No, it's not an alien: it's a local crop of some vegetable that may already
be wildly popular in some other part of the world, and we're only just now
catching on. Cleaned and prepared a certain way, this vegetable may be a
staple of some diet half a world away, just as rice, potatoes or wheat are
in California. It could be the magic secret ingredient for an entire
cuisine, like tomatoes brought from the New World are for us Italians. But
how do we learn to speak its language?

At first I decided total immersion was the way to go. I boned up on cuisines
as far flung as Ethiopian, Cantonese and, obviously, Italian -- and soon
learned that I had to keep an incredibly expensive stocked pantry of elusive
ingredients to make many recipes work. I would use a teaspoon of tamarind
from a jar the size of a Slurpie and let the rest sit for a while. Then
awhile would turn into a year, and my industrial quantity of tamarind would
go into the trash. That was terribly wasteful and unsatisfying. It was like
learning Esperanto: I expended a lot of effort covering the basics of many
cuisines without ever really becoming fluent in any one.

Then I tried learning cuisines the way I learned English: by repeated trial
and (ahem) occasional error. As long as I was constantly changing recipes in
the search of a better one from a worldwide repertoire, I wasn't really
taking the proper time to work up a recipe I could make my own. But before I
could present it to the oohs and aahs of my dining companions, I needed to
give myself time to experiment and make mistakes.

The good news is that it doesn't take as long as you'd think to get your
basics down. All you need to have guests over are three solid dishes. A
great place to start is from what you like, be it sushi, Thai noodles or
French soups. Buy a book, ask kitchen-savvy friends, and go from there.

To build culinary fluency even faster, build from what you already know.
Even in my immigrant eagerness to embrace my newfound home country, I hadn't
completely forgotten the simple guiding principle of my native Italian
cuisine: In the right proportions, a few basic ingredients can transform
into truly complex flavors. So I started mastering some traditional Roman
recipes -- bucatini all'amatriciana, rustic pagnotta, risotto, pizza
margherita -- and noticed how the flavors worked together in different
combinations. Soon I started having many recipes to offer to my guests I
could feel proud of, because I knew they were far more personal and
distinctive than you'd find in restaurants churning out meals to please the
masses.

Like knowing the Latin roots of English words, those basic flavor
combinations gave me a basis to learn from. Once I felt comfortable with the
Roman basics, I started adding ingredients that were completely new to me. I
hit the books to learn about Asian and Latin American ingredients, and
started buying and incorporating them one at a time in the dishes. One of my
recent favorites is a Pacific Rim dish: bok choy and champagne risotto with
lime-poached scallops. Last week I made calzones with sauteed organic mizuna
(Japanese mustard greens) and California-made mozzarella cheese. Not a
common dish in Trastevere, but let me tell you: They're missing out.

So these days when I encounter some utterly unknown ingredient at the
farmer's market, I instinctively begin to salivate -- my tastebuds know
they're in for a journey. Mind you, there will still be some missed
connections and lost luggage along the way, but there's no better way to
initiate a meaningful appreciation of our human differences than through
something as primal as food. The letter of cuisine no longer interests me:
it's the spirit that matters.

Enjoy,
Marco Flavio

Let's get it right, already: Focaccia with rosemary

Buonasera.
One of my contributions to our December group cooking event was a Ligurian Focaccia col rosmarino (Liguria is the Italian region where focaccia originated). The response was truly enthusiastic -- we're talking crumbs within minutes. Nothing could've made me happier than seeing people appreciate the real thing, and see that the difference between store-bought and home-baked is always evident.

I'm often surprised at the focaccia's popularity, given how doughy, limp, stale or tough the average one is. It's really not too hard to make compared to other Italian or French breads, and when you get it just out of the oven, with the slightly crackling crust, glistening with translucent golden olive oil and coarse salt crystals reflecting the light, well... it's outstanding. The aroma of rosemary permeates the room.

The real focaccia has a couple necessary steps that make a significant difference in flavor and texture, and are usually overlooked in mass-produced versions.

First, part of the dough has to be made of boiled potatoes, not flour. This will contribute a different shade of flavor and tenderness to the dough (unlike wheat flour, potatoes have starch but no gluten).
To take your focaccia to next level, you brush it with oil before it's headed for the oven, and also as soon as it comes out. This adds another layer of flavor, wets the rosemary again to release more herbal aromas, and most importantly makes it look amazing.

This goes really well served with a Shitake or Portobello pate with white truffle oil  -- that's the recipe I gave you last week. Do try them together.

A few months back, I gave you quite a different recipe for a focaccia filled and topped with roasted grapes -- it's back in season, as grapes are all over the farmers' markets. Go check it out!

So get to that kitchen, crank up the oven and share this treat. There's plenty for everyone, even for a holiday party crowd.
Enjoy,
Marco Flavio

Focaccia with rosemary (Focaccia ligure col rosmarino)

This will make approximately a 11'x17' focaccia. I bake it in a cookie sheet with small rims.
It takes about 4 hours to make.

Ingredients

Dough
1 medium baking potato or 1 cup of organic potato flakes and 1 cup of hot water
1 and 1/2 tsp of instant yeast or 2 tsp dry yeast
3 and 1/2 cups of organic all-purpose flour (don't use bread flour)
1 cup water (warm to the touch, but not boiling)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus a little more to oil the bowl it'll rise in
1 and 1/4 teaspoons salt

To top it
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh rosemary
1 or 2 teaspoon sea salt, coarse if you can get it

How do I do it?
Boil a quart of water and cook the peeled potato until tender. Mash it finely and reserve 1 and 1/3 cup (tightly packed ) for the recipe.
If using potato flakes, add a cup of boiling water, and mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a mixer, combine the yeast, 1/2 cup of the flour and 1/2 cup of water and mix well, then let sit for 25 minutes. This will activate the yeast and give it a good start, without the salt slowing it down, so the rise will be slower in the second stage. Cover the mixture tightly and let the yeast go to work in private -- it'll get bubbly in there.

Add the remaining ingredients, and mix them initially with the paddle. After a couple of minutes replace them with the dough hook and work about 5 minutes at medium speed, until the dough is tight and clears the edges. It will stick to the bottom of the mixer, as it will be a little wet. That's OK. If the area sticking to the bottom is very large, like a circle of 5" across, add some flour a tablespoon at a time until it's a little tighter.

Get out your dough, place it in a oiled bowl, and let rise until doubled. This takes about an hour at 75 degrees. Colder rooms will take longer. Don't let it over-rise; it's a slightly delicate dough.

Pull it out of the bowl, and spread it about 1/4 of an inch thick onto an 11'x17" cookie sheet. Push with your fingertips and spread it around to the four corners. It's OK if it's dimpled -- you'll need those, and you'll add more later. Do it slowly, and make sure it's spread out. The gluten structure may make it contract a little. Don't worry: It'll grow and fill the space again.

Spread a thin layer of olive oil on it with your fingers (so it won't stick to the towel covering it).
Cover with a kitchen towel and let it puff up to about double in volume.
It'll take 45 minutes to an hour. After 20 minutes, turn on the oven and pre-heat it to 425.

When it's doubled, wet your fingers with cold water (so the dough won't stick to your hands), and dimple the surface, about 2" apart. Pour the olive oil topping, the rosemary and pepper with the coarse salt. Some of the topping will pool in the dimples; that's what you want.

Put it in the oven. It'll take 20-25 minutes to cook. Keep an eye on it, as it's thin and will brown and dry up fast if you overcook it.When it's a couple of shades darker than cream, with a little lighter browning, take it out and put it on a cooling rack (or leave it in the pan if you don't have one).

Brush it well with extra-virgin olive oil. If you have a really flavorful oil, now's the time to use it. Like all breads, let it cool off slightly, at least 30 minutes for the dough to set. Otherwise it may be too chewy (not in the good way).

This reheats very well, and gets a little crisp. If you're taking it to a party or potluck, you should under-bake it a few minutes. Cook it for 20 minutes in this case, then about 5 minutes at 350 when you're ready to eat.

Enjoy!