Understanding the concept of Foccacia as a part of Italian cuisine (Jim Doyle)

I thought I had seen it all until I encountered their cuisine. Before my visit to Italy I had been relegated to simply reading about how good Italian cuisine was and seeing it in the movies. On my visit to Italy I was therefore keen to try and understand what the fuss was about anyway. One of the people I was with in Italy introduced me to Foccacia and I have to admit, ever since then I have never really been able to find anything better tasting. I therefore embarked on a mission to find out how this wonderful bread was made and how it became a part of the Italian culture from the start.

The word Foccacia actually has its origins from the Latin word 'focus' which simply means "hearth, place for baking". In the Roman days, Panis Focacius was a kind of flat bread that was baked on the hearth. It is thought that the recipe for this bread was actually thought out by the Greeks. However, many people associate the recipe with the Ligurian cuisine. Over time, it became apparent that the knowledge of the recipe spread and many people began to take to making this bread. A variation in the ingredients meant that as people moved from one place to another they would probably come across different recipes but all leading to a similar outcome.

Since there were many little towns on the coast of Liguria, it emerged that each town had a different manner of making the Foccacia based on the ingredients that were available to them. In some places, the bread was even considered to be some kind of cake. In some places it had with more softness owing to the oil and in other places it had biscuit-like hardness because of the Camogli. There were actually some places where the ingredients were totally different from the original recipe and the similarities with the original bread were very minimal.

I actually realized that in places like Genoa and Recco, the recipe for this bread is so different but the name is almost the same. The Foccacia that is made in these towns has a filling of cheese usually sandwiched between two layers of the dough that is almost paper-thin. There are parts of North Western Italy where the recipe for the preparation of this bread entails sprinkling of sugar onto the base of the bread. Also, there is usually an addition of honey, raisins and a shot of other ingredients that are sweet.

I learnt that across the whole of Italy, there are various formats in which the Foccacia exists and some of the various types include Barese which is found in places like Taranto, Brindisi, Bari and Lecce. There is also Alla Genovese which is very popular in Genoa and then there is Alla Barese which is mostly from the area of Bari.

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