Have you ever made homemade bread?

Today we're making a crispy and quick homemade bread called focaccia.

Then we're going to whip up some Sicilian pistachio pesto, which goes perfectly with the focaccia.

I'm Chef Lauren Furey.

And you're watching.

Now We're Cooking.

♪ Focaccia is one of my all time favorite dishes to make.

This focaccia bread recipe is super quick.

It's a lot of fun.

And let me tell you.

It gets your whole kitchen smelling so good.

♪ So first thing we're going to do is get all of our dry ingredients together in the super handy dandy bowl.

I love how it has a spout so you can pour it as needed.

And you can also see the measurements to be sure that it doubles in size.

Let's get into it.

This is our all purpose flour.

So we're going to add about three cups of flour.

♪ If it's blowing all over you know you're doing something right.

This instant yeast is where the magic happens.

So a teaspoon and a half of this per recipe will allow the bread to rise.

And you can't make this bread without it.

This is kosher salt.

It adds flavor.

And you want to add about a teaspoon and a quarter.

Now we're going to take our whisk and whisk it right up.

When you buy flour in a bag naturally it'll create clumps.

And that's okay.

That's why we want to whisk it all together.

You don't want to bite into a big clump of flour.

Now our water here is really warm.

So you're looking for water that is warm enough that it'll activate the yeast, but not too hot that it'll kill it.

That's the trick to homemade bread.

And we're going to start with two cups.

And we can add more as needed.

♪ The consistency we're looking for is similar to a pancake batter.

And you can always add more as needed.

The same with flour.

We're going to take a damp dish towel.

And we're going to let the dough rise for about an hour and a half until it's double in volume.

♪ I love to use these towels.

They actually have my Nana's recipes on them, so just nice to keep on hand.

We'll see you in an hour and a half.

We're going to see how this dough bubbled up and see you later.

♪ Oh, yeah.

The dough has doubled in size so we can see right here.

It's about eight cups right now.

And without disturbing it too much, we want to slightly just stir the dough.

And how we want to do that is take the outside of it and just bring it all to the center with the big wooden spoon.

So now we're going to wrap it back up.

We're going to let it rest for a little bit longer and then it's go time.

So now we have our oven preheated to 425 degrees Farenheit And we're going to dress up our pan with some olive oil to make sure it doesn't stick.

But also add so much good flavor.

You want to be sure to thoroughly coat your pan with olive oil.

Now our pan's ready to go.

Let's add our dough.

♪ Oh yeah.

So we're going to dump that right in our pan.

And that is exactly what we're looking for.

If you add too much dough into your pan it'll overflow.

However you want to make sure you spread it out evenly in the pan and make sure each part of it gets crispy.

And make sure you just kind of press it into the shape of the pan.

So we're going to let our focaccia sit for 30 minutes.

Let the air bubbles form and then it'll be ready to go in the oven.

I love using fresh rosemary.

As soon as you start cutting it the whole kitchen smells good.

So rosemary is super easy to grow in any season.

So you want to take it down.

Go like that.

On our focaccia bread, we'll keep the rosemary pretty rustic.

Not every piece is the same, but it adds some charm.

♪ So here's our focaccia dough.

It's doubled in size.

It's fluffy.

It's got our olive oil in there.

And now we're going to put it all together.

And you'll see just how nicely they play together.

All these ingredients.

♪ Now this is a really fun ingredient.

Flaky sea salt.

It's pretty.

It looks nice when you're serving it and it tastes really good.

Most importantly, let's make it rain.

♪ Measure very carefully.

♪ Now we want to take our olive oil and drizzle it Just a little bit at a time.

You can always add more.

We have salt, rosemary and olive oil all over our hands.

We might as well put it to good use.

♪ And that's it.

It's ready for our oven 425 degrees.

While our focaccia is in the oven, we have plenty of time to make the Sicilian pistachio pesto.

It has a base of capers, pistachios, garlic, all the citrus, and plenty of olive oil.

Here we go.

Half a cup of pistachios, two peeled garlic cloves.

Right in there.

♪ Capers.

Capers are very briny.

They're a little bit salty.

And you can buy capers in the brine, which is what I do.

We have our pistachios, garlic, capers ready to blend up.

(blender whirs) Looking good.

So you'll see the pistachios are ground up here.

I'll give you guys a look.

Just so you can see what we're looking for.

It's not quite fine.

It's a little bit coarse, and that's good.

We like some texture.

An important trick to know is to keep a rubber spatula nearby at all times.

It allows you to scrape down the bowl.

Make sure everything is well incorporated.

♪ Now, basil is traditionally in pesto, and mint is a new addition.

We're putting our own spin on it today.

And that's why I love to cook.

You can really make things your own.

Use what you have around.

If you didn't have some of these ingredients, you could even add another green like a regular.

♪ But this is definitely a good base to use.

You want to take your lemon and angle it up as the zest comes off.

Now that our lemon zest.

And now we can get to the juicy part.

Oh yeah, that's a good one.

When life gives you lemons, you make Sicilian pistachio pesto.

It's a great arm exercise.

♪ (blender whirs) ♪ The last step is adding our Parmigiano Reggiano in Italian salty cheese to the pesto.

♪ And before you add any salt or pepper, you want to try it just how it is.

And I promise you, you'll love it.

♪ Our focaccia is hot out of the oven.

And my goodness, it looks delicious.

And I can already imagine what I'm going to use it for.

I could pasta for dinner, or if there's any leftover, I'll serve it for lunch with some pistachio pesto, some creamy burrata, and some mortadella.

♪ Thank you so much for watching.

I'm Lauren Furey, and see you next time.

On, Now We're Cooking ♪ ♪ ♪