Herb and Tomato Focaccia

I added a boost of flavor to a simple bread recipe for this herb and tomato focaccia, dotting it with sweet cherry tomatoes and sprinkling with tons of fresh herbs before baking to a perfect golden brown.

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

I have lots of recipes on this blog to use up fresh garden produce, like my simple romesco sauce or my honey roasted tomatoes with habanero crema. And while I didn’t actually grow tomatoes in my garden this year, I still ended up with a huge stash of fresh garden tomatoes courtesy of my step-mom Nicole’s garden and some farm stands from a recent summer trip to the Catskills (of which a post is coming soon). So as I do at the end of every summer, I came up with a few recipes to use up all that produce, and that’s how this herb and tomato focaccia was born. Focaccia is one of my favorite vessels for a variety of ingredients (see my stinging nettle focaccia recipe), but in this recipe it gets a perfect balance of flavor from sweet cherry tomatoes and savory rosemary and thyme.

The base recipe for this herb and tomato focaccia actually comes from Bon Appetit’s No-Knead Focaccia recipe. I think that it’s a super easy and pretty fool-proof recipe, and comes out really well every time I’ve made it. It’s also completely customizable, and therefor was the perfect base for my toppings. But feel free to try any variety of toppings in place of the tomatoes and herbs, from roasted garlic to diced up veggies.

THEY KEY TO THE BEST FOCACCIA

I happen to think that the key to a really good focaccia is a plethora of olive oil. Not only does the olive oil flavor the bread, but it gives the focaccia that signature crispy crust, almost as if it fries in the pan while it bakes. And you’ll see that this herb and tomato focaccia has no shortage of olive oil, from a coating in both the bowl it rises in and the pan it bakes in to a generous swirl on top before baking. And of course, the tomatoes and herbs in the recipe pair perfectly with the deeply savory and slightly sweet flavor of a really good olive oil.

But there are a few other techniques in this recipe that give this tomato and herb focaccia that signature focaccia taste. And one of those is letting the dough rise in the fridge for a few hours before shaping it into a focaccia loaf. This gives the bread a slightly sourdough taste that you may have never noticed in focaccia before, but you’d definitely notice if it was missing. And it may mean that this recipe takes a long time to make, but that doesn’t make it complicated. After that long first rise, you’ll shape your focaccia dough in the pan, then let it rise again at room temperature for another two hours. Then stud it with cherry tomatoes, sprinkle it with herbs and a generous drizzle of oil, and bake until perfectly golden brown a crusty.

KIDS IN THE KITCHEN

As readers of my blog probably know, my three-year-old niece Scarlet looooooves to help out the in the kitchen (see cherry lemonade popsicles and homemade cheez-its for some other recipes she’s helped with). And she had a blast helping me make this herb and tomato focaccia. She absolutely loved pushing her fingers into the dough to create those signature focaccia dimples (because what kid doesn’t like getting their hands dirty with dough-like substances), and sticking all the cherry tomatoes into the dough. She was so proud to have her picture taken in front of her creation, and when it finally came out of the oven she was so excited to see to fruit of her labors.

And even if you’re not three years old, I promise that you’ll be just as excited as Scarlet was if you choose to make this focaccia. And not only because it’s a beautiful bread that anyone should be proud to have made, but because it just tastes really really good.