Grape, Rosemary & Mozzarella Focaccia

Make the most of the end of grape season with this wonderful rosemary focaccia studded with black grapes and balls of mozzarella cheese! This crispy bottomed focaccia bread is delicious straight out of the oven with a generous sprinkling of sea salt and extra virgin olive oil.

This is one of the best ways to use up grapes. I love baking and cooking with grapes and this is easy and uses up any grapes that have fallen off the stems. Rosemary focaccia bread is a common type of focaccia and adding grapes is common with Schiacciata all'uva which is a thinner, chewier bread than focaccia and comes from the Tuscany region. It was originally made from wine harvest grapes. You can use any types of grapes although I'd strongly suggest using seedless grapes for this. I love that this focaccia is a bit salty and sweet at the same time as well as aromatic with the rosemary and cheesy from the mozzarella.

I've made so many focaccias here so I probably don't need to go through tips for how to make it and truthfully it's really such a simple, wonderful bread that doesn't require any kneading at all. All that I will say is that try to get a high protein bread flour if you can (I use the flour above which I get with my vegebox delivery) and the flavour of the olive oil really comes through with focaccia. Also be generous with the salt. There's nothing worse than underseasoned focaccia especially this one with its lovely sweet and salty balance.

Other focaccia ideas: Four Fancy Focaccias, Potato & Rosemary Focaccia, Mosaic Focaccia, Sunflowers Focaccia, Focaccia in the Thermomix, Focaccia Di Recco (a thinner version), a Halloween Focaccia because why not and the focaccia breadscape that started my whole focaccia obsession!

I love making focaccia because it is really one of the easiest and most rewarding things ever to make. You expend very little effort, you use up things lurking in your vege crisper and it produces a wonderful end result. It instantly cheers me up no matter what sort of challenging day I'm having. And speaking of challenging, I was working at Monica's house shooting her new dinner event when she was rolling meatballs with her hands and I was taking photos. Her phone rang and she asked me to put it on speaker so I flicked it on and a woman answered "This is Lisa from Telstra..." and then launched into a long spiel that was a little indecipherable because she was speaking so quickly.

"I'm sorry I'm in a real hurry and I'm in the middle of something, I can't talk now," said Monica, her hands full of meatball mix.

The woman paused and then hissed, "Well then GET LOST!" and hung up.

Monica and I looked at each other and wide mouthed and wide eyed. "OMG did she just say get lost?" Monica said to me. Also the call came from a mobile number so it might have been easy enough to call her back but Monica is such a nice person all she said was, "If she is having a shitty day I’m glad that she can get it off her chest."

So tell me Dear Reader, what makes your day great? And would you have called Lisa back? Do you ever feel the need to tell people to get lost?

Grape, Rosemary & Mozzarella Focaccia

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 20 minutes plus overnight proofing

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 12

• 750g/26ozs. bread flour (ideally high protein flour)
• 3 teaspoons instant dried yeast (If you are using a sourdough starter, please use 50g/1.7ozs during summer and 100g/3.5ozs during winter)
• 750ml/26flozs. lukewarm water
• 3 teaspoons fine salt
• 100ml/3.5flozs. extra virgin olive oil
• 250g/8.8ozs. seedless black grapes
• 220g/7.7ozs. cherry bocconcini
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 teaspoons salt flakes

Note: this is an overnight focaccia recipe so start this recipe the night before you want to eat it. If you want a quick focaccia recipe use this one.

Step 1 - Whisk the flour and yeast together in a large bowl. Dissolve the salt in the water and add to the flour mixture. Stir until combined and then cover and rest at room temperature overnight for 12-18 hours.

Step 2 - The next morning line a 40x30cm or 16x12inch one inch deep baking tray with parchment and brush with half of the olive oil. Stir the dough and then scoop into the prepared tin. Rest for 5 minutes and then spread it out to the edges with an oiled palette knife or silicon spatula. Cover with a large tray and rest for 1 to 1.5 hours in a warm spot until it develops air bubbles.

Step 3 - Preheat oven to 220C/440F. Drizzle with oil and push down on the dough with your finger tips to create dimples. Top with grapes and halved cherry bocconcini and rosemary sprigs and sprinkle with salt flakes on top. Bake for 30 minutes and serve warm.