Easy Italian Recipes

This bread is from the town of Recco on the Ligurian coast. It contains no yeast, but the oil and water make the dough very elastic and strong. This means it can be rolled out very finely and stretched over huge pans, topped with cheese and then covered with a second fine layer of pastry. It is baked very quickly in an extremely hot oven and served straight away. Every restaurant in Recco offers this bread as an appetiser; it is so delicious that it's hard to leave room for anything else. Crescenza cheese is a soft, creamy cow's milk variety, but Taleggio tastes good, too.

Serves 8

250g strong white flour or '00' flour
1 level teaspoon salt, plus a good pinch for scattering over the focaccia
4 tablespoons olive oil
125ml tepid water
350g crescenza

Mix the flour and the salt together in a large mixing bowl. Pour in 1-1/2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the tepid water, then work the ingredients into a smooth dough using your hands. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 10 minutes. Leave to rest in the bowl, covered, for at least 40 minutes.
Meanwhile select your thinnest metal baking tray or roasting tin, around 35cm x 45cm. It must have a 2-3cm lip. Line the base only with baking parchment and grease well with 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil. Mix the remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons of oil with 11/2 tablespoons of cold water and set aside. Preheat the oven to maximum, usually 240°C/475°F/gas mark 9.
Turn out the dough and cut it in half. Roll out both pieces on a well-floured surface until each one is 1mm thick and the shape of the prepared tin. (You should be able to blow the side of the rolled-out dough and see it lift from the surface.) Roll up one piece of dough, lay it in the tin and unroll it to lie flat, up to and onto the lipped edges. Cut it off around the edge of tin.
Tear the stracchino into small pieces and dot them over the surface of the dough. Now place the second piece of dough over the top and secure the edges by pressing them onto the dough beneath. Make small tears in the surface to allow the steam out and then drizzle over the oil and water mixture. Sprinkle with salt and bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Remove from the oven, cut into large rectangles and serve straight away.

Buon appetito!

This is a completely different way of making bread, with a very wet dough. I learnt to make this in Puglia from a couple of women who lived near Bari. They taught me to make my hand into the shape of a duck's foot, as if I had a webbed hand. 'Flap, flap, flap', they told me until sweat formed on my brow; I was only allowed to stop flapping when bubbles appeared on the surface of the dough.

Serves 10

1 medium potato (about 150g), peeled and roughly chopped
500g strong white bread flour or '00' flour
1 level teaspoon salt
500ml tepid water (use the potato cooking water)
25g fresh yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for greasing

FOR THE TOPPING
olives, oregano, cherry tomatoes, etc.

This is usually made in a large, thin circular tin about 28cm across and 5cm deep, but I have also made it successfully in a thin, rectangular roasting tin. First cut a circle of baking parchment to line the base.
Put a small saucepan of water on to boil and put the potato in to cook. Meanwhile, mix the flour and the salt together in a large mixing bowl. Once the potato is cooked, drain but reserve the a measuring jug and top it up to 500m1, keeping the temperature of the water tepid.
Mix the yeast and sugar into this water with your fingers until it is completely blended and no lumps remain. Put the warm potato through a ricer, or mash with a fork, and add to the flour mixture. Add the tepid water and, making your hand into the shape of a webbed foot, hit the dough and pull it up one side of the bowl. The higher you pull the dough, the more air will be incorporated and the quicker this form of kneading will be. Use the other hand to hold the bowl steady against your stomach. If necessary, add a little more tepid water from the tap to obtain a dough with the consistency of wet porridge.

Repeat this motion, picking up speed as you go. It becomes tiring, but you will see the air getting trapped in the dough. Stop to rest every few minutes and watch the dough. Once you see bubbles rise to the surface and pop it is ready.
Pour half the oil into the lined tin and ensure it is greased generously all over. Pour the focaccia dough into the tin and pat the rest of the oil over the surface of the dough with your fingers so that it is covered in oil. This prevents a crust from forming while it rises. Leave to rise in a warm, draught-free spot for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the surface is covered in bubbles.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6. Once the dough is risen, add your chosen topping. Place the tin in the oven and bake for around 50-60 minutes, or until the bread is crispy and golden brown. Buon appetito!

The Coastal Garden

Boomerang-shaped Liguria is a long strip of Italian Riviera, with Genoa at its center and the coastal towns of the Cinque Terre and Portofino along its coast. Just a few
miles inland, the Alps and the Apennines rise steeply, and the land between the mountains and the sea is like a great kitchen garden, where the salty breeze and temperate climate are ideai for growing asparagus, artichokes, eggplants (aubergines), greens, and especially herbs, including the region's famous basil. The birthplace of Columbus, Genoa has been a center of seafaring and exploration for centuries. But unlike in Venice, where the spice trade seasoned the cuisine, the Genoese preferred to sell the spices they imported to others, relying on local herbs for seasoning, a preference that remains to this day. In the past, Ligurian sailors returning from long sea voyages yearned for fresh vegetables and greens, and local produce is stili centrai to the cuisine, as evidenced by the region's celebrated vegetable-laden minestrone. Because the Ligurian Sea is not as rich a source of seafood as other, warmer Italian seas, fish and shellfish are not the dietary mainstays one might expect in a coastal region. But cooks here make the most of mussels, clams, eels, and sudi small fish as mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and mullet, as well as salt cod, a legacy of the region's seafaring heritage.

Culinary Signature: Pesto

Pesto—young basil leaves, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, and Sardinian pecorino cheese pounded to a paste in a mortar—is Liguria's great contribution to world cuisine. It is classically tossed with trenette (a Ligurian pasta similar to linguine), sometimes with the addition of green beans and potatoes that have been cooked along with the pasta. It is also the crowning condiment for the region's renowned minestrone.

Regional Specialties

Olives local small black olives are cured for eating and also milled to make the region's light, delicate olive oil

Focaccia flat, yeasted bread, often baked with local sage, rosemary, and olives

Minestrone classic vegetable soup, made with pasta and garnished with basil pesto

Ravioli this familiar stuffed pasta was invented in Liguria for long sea voyages

Cima alla genovese veal breast stuffed with a ground meat filling, poached, and sliced

Burrida and ciuppin Liguria's seafood stews, the latter of which was re-created in America by Genoese immigrants as cioppino

Farinata chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour flatbread, often cooked in a wood-fired oven with herbs; eaten as a snack or antipasti

Photo: Traditionally made by hand with a mortar and pestle, vibrant green basil pesto is the epitome of summer.