Red Tomato Pesto Focaccia Bread
This light and fluffy Focaccia Bread is topped with fresh and delicious homemade Red Tomato Pesto.
Ingredients
Red Tomato Pesto
- 1 7 oz can sundried tomatoes
- 1 jarred roasted red pepper
- 4 garlic cloves
- ½ cup basil leaves
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese
- Olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
Focaccia Bread
- 3 ¾ cups bread flour
- 1.5 cups warm water
- 1 packet rapid rise yeast
- 2 tsp honey
- 1.5 tsp garlic salt
- 1.5 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp fresh rosemary
Instructions
- In a measuring cup (or other small container), mix together the warm water, honey, and yeast. In a large bowl, combine the flour and garlic salt. After 5 minutes, pour the liquid into the flour bowl. Mix with a spoon until combined and then knead dough for ~10 minutes. Pour in olive oil and knead for another few minutes or until combined. Place the dough in an olive oil-coated bowl lightly covered by saran wrap and let proof for 30 minutes in a room temperature/slightly warm place (such as an oven with the light on).
- After 30 minutes, perform the “stretch and fold technique” where you gently stretch one corner of the dough out and then fold it on top of the center. Repeat this 4 times (creating four corners essentially) and re-cover letting it sit for another 30 minutes. Repeat this stretch/fold technique another 2 more times (separated by 30 minutes each time).
- Now, grease all sides of a 9x13 baking pan with olive oil and place dough in the center. Gently stretch the dough across the bottom until it fills up the entire pan. Loosely cover the dough and let proof in the pan for 45-60 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the red tomato pesto topping by combining all ingredients in a blender (or immersion blender). Start blending while you pour in olive oil (will require several tbsp) until it is fully blended and resembles pesto consistency.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Once dough has proofed in the pan for an hour, use your fingers to create a bunch of dimples in the dough and then scoop over dollops of pesto (we used ~80% of it and reserved the rest for another recipe but feel free to use it all for extra flavor) and sprinkle over the rosemary. Drizzle the dough with a few generous splashes of olive oil. Optionally, you can top with a pinch of coarse salt (sea salt or coarse kosher salt works the best).
- Bake in oven for 25 minutes and then immediately remove from pan to let cool on a cooling rack. Serve warm or room temperature.