Prep Time: 4 hours, 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 8 1/3 cups (1 k) flour
- 3 ounces (75 g) live yeast of the kind sold in the chilled section of the supermarket
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1/3 cup extravirgin olive oil
- A bunch of fresh sage
Preparation:
Dissolve the yeast in a little warm water, and mix it into half the flour. Cover the resulting biga with the remaining flour, cover all with a cloth, and let it rest for a couple of hours.While it's resting, mince the leaves of sage. (Go with 8-10 the first time you make the recipe, and then adjust the number of leaves to suit your taste thereafter).
Retrieve the biga from the flour and shape the four into a mound; scoop a well into the center, and drop in the minced sage, 5 tablespoons of oil, a pinch of salt, and the white wine. Now knead all the ingredients, until you obtain a normal bread dough. Let it rest 2 hours.
Preheat your oven to 480 F (250 C). Oil a baking sheet, dust it with fine salt, and spread the dough over it to a thickness of a half inch, tamping it with a spoon or your fingertips to give it a dimpled surface. Brush it with the remaining oil, sprinkle it with coarse sea or kosher salt, and let it rise 10 minutes.
Bake the focaccia until golden on a low rack, turning it 180 degrees partway through the baking. Remove it from the oven, cut it into squares, and serve it warm.
