Judging from our reader evaluations, you already know and love focaccia. Which means you’re going to get on nice with its equally chill French cousin, fougasse. It’s pronounced foo-gehs-uh, and it interprets to focaccia from French. However as an alternative of being baked right into a rectangle or spherical, this parallel to the Italian flatbread rocks a leaf-like form and a crackly-crispy crust that’s begging to be dunked in soups, stews, and dips.
The bread’s story supposedly begins in historical Rome, the place it was apparently known as panis focacius and served as each a fast snack and rudimentary temperature gauge for ovens. In Medieval Provence, it transmuted into fougasse, adorned with wrinkly olives and dramatic slashes to forestall cracking. And throughout the Feast of Pentecost, fougasse symbolically took the type of a ladder, representing the descent of the Torah on Mount Sinai for Jewish communities in Provence.
The fluffy dough has survived centuries, now a Provençal staple that’s a part of each aperitif and sometimes served as a foremost course with a inexperienced salad. However let me prevent the trawl by your library’s culinary archives and as an alternative direct you to this delightfully simple, No-Knead Fougasse recipe by my colleague, our deputy meals editor Hana Asbrink. Should you’re desperate to fill your kitchen with the yeasty odor of contemporary bread however really feel nervous about shaping a boule (identical) or coping with a needy sourdough starter (identical), Hana’s recipe is a wonderful entry level.
Historically, French bakers wrestled flour, water, salt, and yeast right into a pillowy dough. Hana’s recipe is comparably low-maintenance; it requires a high-hydration dough (which means it’s wetter and stickier) that comes collectively in a single bowl, with out the guide pounding. Although it requires about two hours of proofing, with occasional folding, virtually all of that point is unattended, leaving you loads of time to vanish right into a juicy novel.
No-knead breads, like Hana’s fougasse, have been round for some time. On November 8, 1945, The Milwaukee Journal printed an article titled: “We Don’t Must Knead Bread Now: Specialists Present New Methodology.” Popularized once more by Jim Lahey’s recipe, printed in The New York Times in 2006, no-knead peasant breads, focaccias, and ciabattas have steadily risen to prominence, nudging fussier bakes apart. Their magic lies within the exceptional effort (low) to reward (excessive) ratio.
“There’s usually an intimidating aura that surrounds breadmaking, and what the no-knead approach brings is a degree enjoying subject,” Hana says. When creating the recipe, she wished to create one thing hands-off and approachable, and he or she has all the time felt like fougasse, which lurks in focaccia’s shadow, deserved extra love. Hana says, “She’s begging to be the primary character however nobody actually talks about her.”
The beautiful design actually offers fougasse its edge—however don’t be intimidated. Whereas French bakers of yore formed their dough into elaborate suns, leaves, or wheat ears with their fingers, this recipe has you flatten yours right into a rectangular form and make slashes with a pointy knife or—my favourite—a pizza cutter. It’s a no-stress endeavor. If any of your cuts are less-than-cute, the olives, rosemary, and lemon zest are pleased distractions.
Plus, even when she comes out a bit wonky, it’s not like your fougasse will final lengthy. As mine emerged from the oven, steaming and fragrant, I might completely see the Provençal attraction of consuming it with a crisp salad. However you’ll forgive me for slamming three items proper off the chopping board.
