Ballymaloe Rosemary, Onion & Olive Focaccia
From Jessie Sheehan's New Book 🎉
Pizza Friends, hello! And happy Friday.
Today I am sharing a recipe inspired by one in Jessie Sheehan’s latest book Salty Cheesy Herby Crispy Snackable Bakes. If you are unfamiliar with Jessie, she is the queen of “easy peasy” and a champion of recipes that come together with minimal ingredients, effort, and equipment. I love many of her recipes from her peanut butter cookies to her lemon-blueberry quick bread, which comes together in one bowl with a whisk, a spatula, and mostly pantry items, perhaps best epitomizing her “snackable bakes” ideology.
What I love about Jessie’s recipes is that she always shares some sort of hack or trick. In that quick bread recipe for instance, she reserves a cup of the blueberries from the initial mixing and dimples them into the top of the batter just before baking to ensure those juicy berries suspend evenly in that finished loaf.
When I came across the recipe for Ballymaloe Rosemary Onion “Focaccia” in her latest book, I was intrigued: the base is Irish soda bread, a trick she learned from the Ballymaloe Cookery School cookbook. To make it, she spreads soda bread dough into a baking pan, brushes it with olive oil, dimples it as you would focaccia, then tops it. “The rosemary and onion topping,” she writes, “coupled with the olive oil, flaky salt, and red pepper flakes couldn’t be simpler or more satisfying.”
When Jessie’s book arrived, I happened to have pan pizza dough in my fridge — who doesn't? — and so I made a more traditional focaccia with the Ballymaloe toppings along with olives, which was suggested in one of the notes offering variations. With roasted tomato soup by its side, dinner was done. That recipe is below.
The following day, without fridge dough to turn to, I made Jessie’s Salt-n-Pep Skillet Biscuits, which came together in no time and which my entire family devoured. And yesterday, I made the Scottish Oat Cakes, which I found irresistible first with salted butter then with a slice of cheese and a pickle, as Jessie suggests doing.
As readers of this pizza newsletter, which often include recipes that call for lots of your time, you will find Jessie’s book a breath of fresh air. I have so many recipes bookmarked — corn muffins with pickled jalapeños, deep dish cacio e pepe quiche (with those desirable straight sides!), Brazilian cheese buns, to name a few — and I am very much looking forward to the savory snackable season before me. Read more about Jessie’s beautiful and fun new book in her newsletter: Snackable Bakes.
The Recipe
If you need guidance with the dough, proofing, dimpling, etc, watch the video here: Paula’s Nonna Pizza with Tomatoes and Onions. The process is identical but with different toppings.
For this recipe you’ll need: olives (green are particularly pretty here), red onion, rosemary, crushed red pepper flakes, black pepper, and flaky sea salt.
Thinly slice the onions, pit the olives and roughly chop or tear them, and strip about a tablespoon of rosemary leaves from the stem.
Season the dough — this is the pan pizza dough recipe from Pizza Night — with pepper and crushed red pepper flakes to taste. Spread the onion-olive mixture over the dough and dimple one last time.
Bake until evenly golden all around.
Let cool briefly before cutting…
… and serving. Put on a pot of soup and call dinner done!
Nashville Friends?
On October 19th at 3 pm, I’ll be doing a “Pizza at Home” demo at Pizza City Fest Nashville. Comedian AJ Jacobs will be moderating the demo, and if you live nearby, I’d love to meet you! The lineup of pizza vendors all weekend looks incredible, and on Sunday, one of my pizza heroes, Justin de Leon of Appolonia’s Pizzeria in Los Angeles, is doing a pan pizza demo. His pizza is insanely delicious. Get your tickets here!
Love pizza and salad? Find recipes, tips, and tricks in Pizza Night 🍕🍕🥗🥗
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-a-Million | Bookshop.org | Hudson Booksellers | Walmart
I am a Ballymaloe girl for life, and forever a Jessie fan. Three cheers for this triple threat collab of baking greats!
Yum! I have Jessie’s new book, but haven’t had the chance to read it yet. Cannot wait to make this and some of your other suggestions.