History of focaccia bread
Bread. Why is a simple mixture of flour, water, and yeast so good? You can’t put a specific word to what makes it so satisfying. The flavor, texture, and smell are just some of the factors that makes bread so prominent.
Throughout recorded history, it has been a common food in large parts of the world. It is one of the oldest man-made foods and has been of significant importance since the dawn of agriculture. Due to many cultures around the world, there are many different types of bread.
Focaccia is a style of bread that is relatively flat, usually quite plain inside, but topped with olive oil and herbs and occasionally with sliced olives on top. A range of varieties of focaccia exist, and in the 21st century, new varieties have been created due to the versatility of the basic recipe.
That said, focaccia is slightly different than the regular loaf of bread. The loaf does rise slightly, so it is not a traditional unleavened bread.
Historically focaccia was unleavened, the recipe rises naturally in the right climate, and this gives a further clue to its origins. The further inland one travels, the less dense the air becomes. Considering a large portion of the inland Mediterranean is quite mountainous, we can speculate that it was people who resided inland who first created focaccia.
Most historians believe Focaccia originated from either the Etruscans of North Central Italy prior to the Roman Empire forming or the Ancient Greek at the beginning of the first millennium BC. Flat unleavened bread has been made throughout the Middle East and extending to Persia for this long as well, so identifying a specific culture responsible for the first focaccia loaves is almost impossible.
The name “Focaccia” is directly derived from the Roman words “panis focacius”. Panis simply means bread while Focacius is the Latin word for center or fireplace. Linguists theorize that since the fireplace was in the center of the house, the word could be used interchangeably. Focaccia in Roman times was cooked in the ashes of a fire rather than on a tray above the fire, so the translation seems correct.
Romans would mix up a simple recipe of rough flour, olive oil, water, a very small quantity of yeast and salt. They may have been seasoned with other herbs but in most cases the bread was probably quite plain.. In Roman times focaccia was used as a dipping bread, usually being torn apart by hand and dipped into salty soups made quite simply from water, vinegar and possibly olive oil.
The basic recipe for focaccia spread from the Romans to France and Spain where it initially became a popular bread to bake primarily in less well off areas. In fact, focaccia style bread was used extensively to feed slaves in the Roman Empire, and the stigma still exists today in some countries. In Spain, pan de hogaza, the peasant’s staple bread which is made in a similar way to Roman panis focacius, is a homemade bread typically made in the countryside amongst the very poor.
In France, focaccia style recipes such as fouaisse or foisse hat are made in Burgundy and considered a daily bread by a significant part of the population. Similarly, in the Provence and Languedoc regions, focaccia breads are still very popular with bakeries and supermarkets, all selling more fogassa than the French baguette, a bread considered typical for France.
In the 20th century, Italian immigrants brought the recipes for pizza, bruschetta, and focaccia to the United States. Arguably, focaccia is no longer strictly tied to Italian communities, nowadays it can be found in almost all bakeries and supermarkets. With a wide variety of seasonings, savory versions can contain olive oil, rosemary, sage, garlic, cheeses and onion. There are also sweet recipes of focaccia containing eggs, honey, raisins, anise, sugar and lemon or orange peel.
Today we enjoy this versatile bread alone as a snack, a very tasty sandwich bread, light meal or on the side complimenting a full-bodied Italian meal.
