FOCACCIA, CHIZZE, FUGASSA, PIZZA SCIMA, THICK OR THIN . . . REGION BY REGION, FOCACCE ARE DELICIOUS!
Bite into a slice or wedge of focaccia and you are channeling the Ancient Greeks, Etruscans, pilgrims traveling to or through Italy during the Middle Ages and artists of the Renaissance. From panis focacius, (bread + hearth) the Latin term for dough flattened over a stone slab, covered in ashes, and baked in the hearth comes today’s soft, leavened focaccia. Originally, it was unleavened, used as “disposable plates” for soldiers, sailors, and travelers who needed quick, nutritious, easily transportable and long-lasting provisions. The flat disk would serve as a dish, holding a variety of toppings, from salty fish to olives, herbs, cheeses and then, in true ecological fashion, be eaten so there would be no waste. Ultimate recycling! Versions of focaccia style breads are found throughout the Mediterranean. The Slow Food Dictionary to Italian Regional Cooking list 15 different versions of focacce (plural of focaccia). While they all share the basic common ingredients, the Italian imagination takes over and the regions put their spin on the final product. The toppings vary from region to region. Sometimes the name changes, some are savory, some are sweet, some are filled with cheese or vegetables. But all are delicious and reflect Italy’s regional pride. Most focacce are made with a high-gluten (hard) flour, but some regions use flours that are common to their area, such as, ceci-bean, corn, chestnut, cake flour, and flour into which mashed or riced potatoes are added. Some type of fat along with water helps bind the flour and produce the crisp crust. Lard was the fat of choice, but now butter and good olive oil lead the way. The best quality olive oil is required to spread over the dough and fill those yummy indents that give focaccia its classic look. Salt, to Italians, evokes centuries of salt wars and bread with and without salt distinguishes one region from another. Focaccia contains salt in both the dough and for the final touch after it is baked. Good table salt works for the dough and coarse salt, like Maldon, sprinkled on top of the fresh out of the oven product is delizioso. If travelling to Italy is in your future, you will find that focaccia is part of a large repertoire of flat breads. The thinnest is pizza, then schiacciata, and finally the highest of the flats, focaccia. Here is a sampling of focaccia diversity:
Abruzzo and Molise have a rich focaccia history. Molise alone sports more than 12 different recipes for making the flat bread. It is considered “cucina povera” but it also forms an integral part of feast days, holidays, and showing the fruits of the seasons, such as figs, grapes, and olives. A few interesting focacce from the Abruzzo-Molise area are:
Pizza scima: a focaccia made with flour, water, salt, extra virgin olive oil, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo white wine, wild fennel seeds, and baked in a wood-stoked oven. It is a signature dish of the Trabocchi Coast (Ortona to San Salvo) which is dotted with the trabocchi, or fishing machines, on piles in the Adriatic. The adjective “scima”, literally stupid, is a dialectal expression that comes from “acime” and stands for “azzimo”, meaning unleavened. The top is traditionally scored into small squares.
Pizza di mais: A corn focaccia that was traditionally prepared “sotto la coppa”, that is under an iron lid covered in burning coal embers. The pizza is topped with vegetables and boiled pork meat.
Pizza assettata: “Assettata” means seated in dialect, and that’s because the bread does not use any yeast. Seasoned with fennel and chili pepper, the thin flatbread is made with flour, water and extra virgin olive oil. It’s excellent paired with local cheeses, in particular with a local caciocavallo produced since ancient times in the areas of Agnone, Capracotta and Vastogirardi, near Isernia. It’s also commonly eaten with stracciata, a fresh stretched curd cheese made with cow’s milk. If your Italian journey takes you beyond Abruzzo-Molise, here are a few focacce to sample:
Liguria: Focaccia di Recco (cheese filled focaccia), focaccia di Voltri (thin dough coated with corn flour and baked on a hot plate, and focaccia Genovese (also called fugassa) most closely resembles the focaccia we experience in the US.
Emilia Romagna: In Emilia, focacce called chizze are made, stuffed with slivers of parmesan and then fried in lard. In Bologna, it is called Crescentone. Bits of lard are added to the dough.
Tuscany: In Pistoia they make necci, focaccias of chestnut flour. Chestnut flour is also used in the focacce of Garfagnana.
Umbria; The local focaccia is called “al testo”. It is cooked on a testo, or disk that in the past was made from river gravel. Today, the testo is made of cast iron.
Lazio: In Gaeta, the focaccias are called tielle and often dressed in the famous Gaeta olives, the color of red wine, small and aromatic.
Sicily; Messina has focaccerie, focaccia shops; Catania schiacciate filled with cheese, anchovies, onions, and tomatoes and black olives; Syracuse and Ragusa call stuffed focaccia scacce.
The cooler weather may have you looking through recipes and firing up the oven. Winter is a great time to experiment with focaccia recipes. There are a lot of recipes online and in cookbooks. A few key tips for making focaccia: use the best ingredients possible, slowly mix in the flour with a wooden spoon, use the tips of your fingers to make the indents, spoon rather than brush the extra virgin olive oil into the indents and a blue or black steel baking sheet will give you a nice, crisp, dark crust. Our own Domenica Marchetti has a great recipe in her book, The Glorious Vegetables of Italy. Find more at www.domenicacooks.com . For the full article of focaccia including a lot more tips and recipes https://lacuisineus.com/you-say-focaccia-i-say-focacce/
Several sources were used for this article, notably Why Italians Love to Talk About Food: A Journey Through Italy’s Great Regional Cuisines, From the Alps to Sicily, by Elena Kostioukovitch; The Slow Food Dictionary to Italian Regional Cooking, Slow Food Editore; Celebrating Italy, Carol Field, and www.gamberorosso.it/it/food Elizabeth DiGregorio is a AMHS member. She contributes to the blog
Kitchen Detail https://lacuisineus.com/ dedicated to food and travel. Many of the articles explore Italy’s food, people and places to visit