It’s not easy to fit all the focaccias in a single category. Focaccia is in fact a recipe in itself, it is not an appetizer nor a first course, nor a second course, but at the same time it can be all three things together. It can be eaten as a replacement for a meal or as an accompaniment, the fact is that it goes well with everything and can be prepared in multiple variations. In fact, Italy boasts of numerous versions of focaccia from north to south, simple, stuffed, seasoned and even sweet. We always start from a base of flour, water, yeast and oil, the rest is up to you and your tastes!

Italy in focaccia

The fortune of focaccias is in fact linked to their versatility and convenience of consumption: they can open the meal, accompany the aperitif, quench the appetite at any time and represent one of the most popular street foods. There are those who maintain that focaccia is older than bread, even before the discovery of leavening and the invention of the oven: after all, focaccia derives from focuswhich identifies it as the archetype of things cooked on the fire.

In our country there are a myriad of variations and it really is impossible to enumerate them all. The most famous is certainly the Ligurian focaccia, whose simple recipe (leavened dough made from soft wheat flour seasoned with olive oil and salt) can be enriched with sage, rosemary, olives or onions. In Voltri (GE) the crispier focaccia is sprinkled with corn flour, while nearby Recco is famous for the variant filled with prescinseua.

Yet another Ligurian variant is the sardenaira with onions and anchovies, similar to pissaladière Provencal. Moving towards the Po Valley, it is a classic la crushed with cracklings which, depending on the area of ​​origin, takes a different name, such as crescenta or fattened gnocco; not much different there Venetian caliper, in which diced salami or bacon are incorporated, while in Reggio Emilia and Mantua the rare variant with goose cracklings of the Jewish tradition survives. Tuscany is there crushed with fresh grapes, called sicciaccia or ciaccia: once typical of the harvest period and now available all year round, it is characterized by the contrast between sweet and savory. This brief overview ends Calabrian pittabread dough donut stuffed with cracklings and chilli pepper or with morzeddua stew of meat and pork offal cooked in lard.

Our 30 savory and sweet focaccias

We made your mouth water, didn’t we? Now, go browse our gallery with the proposals cooked in our editorial team and then let us know which one you prefer!