Chef Paolo Griffa’s soft, fluffy, and just-the-right-amount-of-greasy focaccia truly amazed me. Yes, you can expect just about anything from a starred chef, but let’s face it — his version boasts a certain “homemade” quality and feel that bread, pizza, and focaccia often lack.
Griffa is best known for having revolutionized the cuisine of the Hotel Petit Royal in Courmayeur, an Alpine resort village in the Aosta Valley, the region of northwest Italy located in the foothills of Mont Blanc. His menu features 40 rotating dishes that fuse his deft technique with the quality ingredients of the Aosta Valley. During March lockdown, he showed viewers how to make the perfect pizza at home on Instagram Live. Which is why I shouldn’t have been surprised by his onion focaccia. The first chance I got, I couldn’t help but ask him for the recipe to make it at home.
Soft and Fluffy Onion Focaccia by Chef Paolo Griffa
Poolish
Ingredients:
For the poolish
6½ cups Manitoba flour
1 qt. water
½ tsp. brewer's yeast
Method:
Knead all the ingredients together and let the dough rise for 12 hours at 68°F.
Topping
Ingredients:
13 large white onions (around 4 lbs.)
Method:
Peel and slice the onions coarsely, not too thin. In a pot, add a drizzle of oil and let the onions begin to wither, then add water to stew them. This will cook the onions, but keep them firm so they don’t fall apart later.
Focaccia dough
Ingredients:
Poolish (made previously)
8 cups buratto flour
3⅔ cups manitoba flour
3⅔ cups durum wheat semolina
2¾ cup water
¼ cup/2 oz. yeast
¼ cup/2 oz. salt
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. malt
stewed onions
Method:
Knead all the ingredients together until combined. Let rest for 30 minutes. Make loaves of 28 to 30 oz. per each of the four baking sheets. Oil the surface of the loaves. Then let them rise again for 1 hour. Spread the dough to cover each baking sheet with your hands. Then let it rest until tripled in volume. Spread the stewed onions on the surface. Bake at 350°F at 100% humidity for 15 minutes. Then bake at 338°F with the fan on at 0% humidity for 3 more minutes. Remove the focaccia from the oven, remove immediately from the baking sheet, and place on a wire rack.
