I’ve had a love of focaccia for many years. In the United States the penultimate example of great focaccia can be found at the Liguria Bakery in North Beach, San Francisco. In the last 20 years, this was always the benchmark for me. Unfortunately, I had never been able to make anything remotely resembling focaccia like that. Several previous attempts had fallen far short of the mark. Last week, however, a recipe from David Tanis changed the story.

That was how it is supposed to look if you do it right.

Here was my dough, developing and being prepared to bake:

Pretty good facsimile.

The other thing about focaccia is that it is best eaten in the first 6-8 hours after baking. My experience has been that reheated focaccia the next day was very disappointing. Amazingly, this recipe was good for almost a week. Of course, it was best when fresh, but toasted or pan-fried, it was enjoyable much longer than usual. I particularly liked serving it with Pecorino or Feta cheese.