Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Marjoram and Orange Zest Focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccia maggiorana e scorza d’arancia

And yet again another focaccia recipe! For today’s Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook I present you the recipe for a high hydration, fresh, spring-mood flavoured focaccia. Mix a hint of creativity, a sprinkle of marjoram a pinch of orange zest and you will have a delicious bread to accompany your salads with. Keep aside the recipe to accompany cold summer soups…try it with a fresh gazpacho, you will love it! To make it I used Maroggia’s Mill pasta and pizza flour, a skilful mix of wheat flour and finely ground semolina flour. When I don’t have any of this special flour around I usually mix 50% of wheat flour with 50% of semolina flour. The recipe has been tasted and approved by my guinea pigs, what are you waiting for?

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Rye Flour Focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccia alla segale

Focaccia, it simply needs no introduction. I baked many version but I still had to use Maroggia’s Mill rye flour. And here it is! Simply delicious…

Cuochi d’artificio: “Happy Hour” Focaccia / Cuochi d’artificio: Focaccia “Happy Hour”

Happy Hour has been in vogue since the ’60s starting as a trend in America and gradually spreading in other Anglo-Saxon countries. Recent years have witnessed an exponential explosion of the trend especially in our latitudes. I do not know about you, but when I was twenty (well 15 years ago…gosh!) we hardly made arrangements to meet up for Happy Hour but would usually meet for a beer, helping ourselves to a sad bowl of greasy chips straight from the bag in order to fill our bellies. Things have changed in recent years, and bars and restaurants offer Happy Hour serving delicious buffet and platters of cheese and cured meats. But Happy Hour can also be the perfect occasion to welcome friends who come over to dinner, or as an enjoyable convivial moment before going to a party. That’s Cuochi d’artificio’s staff decided to devote an entire episode to the topic. And I was asked to come up with a recipe. What a better occasion than this one to present you with my focaccia recipe? Or should I call them focaccia skewers?

Here you will find the list of ingredients and step by step description of the recipe, and here you can see the video recipe to have a more accurate visual reference.

“Cuochi d’artificio”: Focaccia Pudding

For this episode of “Cuochi d’artificio” I did no kneading, at least not in the tv studio’s kitchen (of course I could not stop myself from baking the focaccia I used for this recipe) but found myself using my beloved focaccia as the main ingredient for the dish. Too little time and too many steps to bake a well honeycombed and fragrant focaccia, not to mention the structure of the dough which is very wet and difficult to handle and this might put off some viewers. But who knows, maybe I will have the opportunity to present my own recipe for focaccia on tv sooner or later. But no more talk. Pudding is a great way to recycle old bread and focaccia leftovers (even though it never occurred to me to have focaccia leftovers) and in this case instead of the usual sweet pudding dessert I decided to make a savoury version. To flavour it I used formaggella ticinese, a very fat cheese, anchovies and the right dose of one of my favourite ingredients…licorice! Are you curious? Then click here to access to the episode with the recipe and here for all the ingredients you need and the steps to follow to bake the recipe. Bon appétit!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Stale bread focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccia con pane raffermo

I don’t know what’s your policy at home, but at my place nothing gets thrown away. Food is sacred and anything that is left over is eaten the next day, possibly converting the dish into something else or mixing up with other ingredients. This rule goes for bread too. I had already used breadcrumbs to bake pain de beaucaire, discovering how the addition of ground stale bread to give something extra to the flavour of the dough. With this in mind I came up with this tasty focaccia, covered with a crunchy breading, especially for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. Suffice to say it has been all the rage at RSI (the tv channel I am working for) and people still ask me with pleading eyes to bring some more!

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Millet flour Focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccia con farina di miglio

Thanks to my new diet and lifestyle in the past months I have come across many ingredients that I did not really know or had never tasted so far. Among these millet flakes, which have become a staple for a creamy breakfast or even an afternoon snack. This ingredient immediately struck me for its taste and creamy texture. I was so intrigued by it’s qualities I decided to pull together a recipe for Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook. And here it is. The addition of millet flour provides with a more dense focaccia than the ones made with wheat flour only, with an extremely creamy and fragrant crumb. This focaccia is ideal for a quick and filling lunch, something handy to take with you. My mouth is already watering, what about yours?

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Semolina Flour Focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccine con farina di semola

For once my english introduction to the recipe has to be completely different from the italian one. Why this? Focaccia is quite a common snack (or at least it was) in High Schools both in Ticino and in Italy. I remember those round flatbreads, that were handed out at screaming and pushing (and quite commonly spotty) teenagers during recreation time. There were few focaccias and pizzas, wrapped in grease paper (or was it the actual grease from the breads?) and many, too many of us. Those who had the chance to get their hands on such a treat would rarely share, grinning at those who were left with nothing. Oh teenagers! What was it that made to us those rubbery and greasy breads so appealing I still ask myself, watching back to those days. But let’s look forward. Luckily my tastebuds have had a proper breaducation along the years, no such “breads” are seen in my house, and I rather not eat than bite into rubber foam discs. This focaccia is what all High School pupils deserve.

Wheat and Emmer Focaccia with Leeks and Broccoli / Focaccia di frumento e farro con broccoli e porri

Today on the blog a recipe from another blogger, Astrid aka Dolce Amara Deliziosa, will be delighting your tastebuds. This good recipe languished a long time in my “limbo” folder, photos already taken and all the changes to the original file already written down. But then, a challenge, a new recipe, and me getting lost into many other ideas and projects and the recipe slowly drifted into oblivion. Well, it’s finally the right time to publish it, if only to give credit to Astriduccia. It was indeed love at first sight with this tasty focaccia, which I enjoyed very much for lunch on several occasions (thank you freezer <3).

Maroggia’s Mill Cookbook: Potato Focaccia / Il Ricettario del Mulino di Maroggia: Focaccia di patate

Yet another Friday, and yet another blog post high on carb levels. Who does not love focaccia? For sourdough lovers I have already posted my recipe for wild yeast focaccia but what I lack is a little recipe a little less complex, with a lower hydration but as soft and well risen as the former. To achieve such a result I have put some potatoes in the dough, used a good flour and a little elbow grease. Are you ready for my easy peasy recipe?

My heart belongs to Genoa. Sourdoug Surprises: Focaccia with pickled artichokes, red cabbage and anchovies / Il cuore a Genova, una focaccia alla crema di carciofi, cavolo rosso e acciughe per l’amore della mia vita

Focaccia, Genoa’s most famous bread, is this month’s Sourdough Surprises theme. Genoa has adopted me for little less than a year back in 2006, and still is the city I consider my true home.