115 · Liguria · bakery bread and street food
Focaccia genovese
Genova and the Città metropolitana di Genova, Liguria- Ask for
- Focaccia genovese
- From
- Genova and the Città metropolitana di Genova, Liguria
- When
- Baked year-round; go in the morning or ask which tray has just left the oven.
Story & traditions
The essential guide
Four image-led notes · the things worth knowing
Focaccia genovese is Genoa’s thin, olive-oil-bright bakery bread, dimpled with brine so its crisp surface gives way to a soft, almost creamy crumb.
In Genoa fugassa is everyday food from breakfast onward: bakeries bake it early, people eat it warm from an open paper bag, and some dip it in cappuccino. It is not the cheese-filled focaccia of Recco, but a leavened, deliberately oily and salted bread with its own structure.
Golden, savoury and fragrant with olive oil, crisp underneath and soft within. It should be thin, generously dimpled and never sour, dry or bready-thick.
Stretch a yeasted olive-oil dough thinly in an oiled pan, proof in stages, press many deep fingertip dimples, flood the surface with warm salt-water and oil emulsion, then bake hot until gold and brush with oil.
Ask for focaccia normale or focaccia genovese and choose a centre or edge piece to suit your texture preference. Go in the morning, ask what has just come from the oven and keep the bag open while it is hot.
Baked year-round; go in the morning or ask which tray has just left the oven. Eat warm by hand, alone or with cappuccino at breakfast; later in the day pair it with a glass of local white wine.
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Serving ideas & recipes
Eat warm by hand, alone or with cappuccino at breakfast; later in the day pair it with a glass of local white wine.
Preparation reference: Stretch a yeasted olive-oil dough thinly in an oiled pan, proof in stages, press many deep fingertip dimples, flood the surface with warm salt-water and oil emulsion, then bake hot until gold and brush with oil.