Potato Focaccia with Olives and Rosemary
A fat slice of warm olive focaccia with some cheese and a salad makes a pretty easy sheltering-in-place dinner. You can adapt the topping to use what you have: frozen artichoke hearts, sautéed red onions, halved cherry tomatoes or strips of roasted pepper. Adding cooked potato to the dough produces an especially moist and tasty result. From Wine Country Table by Janet Fletcher (Rizzoli).
½ pound Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled
1-1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
2-1/2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 dozen California olives, pitted and halved
1-1/2 teaspoons finely minced rosemary or dried oregano, finely crumbled
Put the potatoes in a small saucepan and add water to cover by 1 inch. Do not add salt. Bring to a simmer, cover partially, and simmer gently until the potatoes are tender when pierced, 15 minutes or more, depending on size. Set aside 1-1/3 cups of the potato water, then drain the potatoes. When cool enough to handle, peel the potatoes and pass them through a ricer or food mill fitted with a fine disk. If you don’t have a ricer or food mill, mash the potatoes well with a potato masher.
Refrigerate the potato water until it cools to 105°F to 115°F. Put 1/3 cup of the cooled potato water in a large bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Let soften for about 3 minutes, then whisk with a fork to dissolve and let proof 10 minutes.
In a bowl, combine the flour and salt and whisk to blend.
Add the olive oil, riced potato, and remaining 1 cup potato water to the proofed yeast. Stir to combine, then add the flour gradually, stirring with a wooden spoon until the dough clears the sides of the bowl. Keeping the dough in the bowl, knead it gently by hand until smooth, adding just enough additional flour to keep it from sticking to your hand. You should not need more than 1 to 2 tablespoons. Shape the dough into a ball and coat lightly with olive oil. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic film and let rise until doubled, 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
Punch the dough down. Using 1 tablespoon olive oil, grease the bottom and sides of a rimmed 11 by 17-inch baking sheet. Transfer the dough to the baking sheet. With well-oiled fingers, poke and prod the dough into a rectangle that fits the pan. The dough is elastic and will want to spring back. If it resists your attempts to flatten it enough to cover the pan, let it rest for 5 minutes and try again. If it still springs back from the edges, let it rest 5 minutes longer and try once more. You should be able to flatten it sufficiently after a couple of rests, but don’t worry if the dough doesn’t completely fill the pan. Let rise, uncovered, until puffy, about 1-1/2 hours.
While the dough rises, preheat the oven to 400°F. If you have a baking stone or baking tiles, put them on the center oven rack and preheat them for at least 30 minutes.
Arrange the olives, evenly spaced, on the surface of the focaccia, then gently press them into place. Brush the surface of the dough with 1 tablespoon olive oil, then scatter the rosemary on top. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through.
Immediately slide a long metal offset spatula under the focaccia to make sure it is not sticking to the baking sheet, then slide the focaccia onto a rack to cool. Slice into desired portions with a bread knife and serve warm or at room temperature.
Makes one 11- by 17-inch focaccia
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