Rich in olive oil and loaded with fragrant rosemary and sage, focaccia is a flat bread that has chewy crust with a soft and airy center. However, the bread has a mild and subtle flavor that makes an excellent side to pair with main dishes.
Every bite you will experience smooth olive oil with refreshing hint of herbs and spice. Depending on the Italian region, there are sweet or savory focaccia bread recipes.
What to eat with focaccia? Typically, savory focaccia bread is served as a sandwich or with a bowl of soup or salad. The base dough is relatively tasteless, so it can be easily topped with tomato, cheese, vegetables, eggs and sausage to imitate a pizza or savory flatbread.
Some sweet focaccia are made with sugar, raisins, or honey, and can be eaten as dessert or breakfast as a replacement for french toast.
Focaccia is an Italian-based flatbread with a texture and taste that is similar to pizza. It’s pretty versatile and can be served as a side dish, main dish, or even as dessert.
Focaccia is simple to prepare since its dough doesn’t have to be laid out in the traditional loaf shape. Focaccia tastes good on its own, but it’s even better when paired with other dishes. In this article, we go into detail about what to pair with focaccia.
What to serve with focaccia?
With meat, vegetables, cheese, and nuts, there are many ingredients that pair wonderfully with focaccia bread. As a result, fresh baked focaccia bread is lovely and make an excellent main or side dish.
Here are some accompaniments that can be served with focaccia bread:
- Fruits: dried cherries, golden raisins, cranberries, blueberries, plums, peach, apricots
- Vegetables: butternut squash, bell pepper, onions, potatoes, snap peas, asparagus, zucchini
- Nuts: pine nuts, walnuts
- Cheese: ricotta, blue cheese, cheddar, mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, romano, cream cheese
- Herbs: rosemary, basil, sage, thyme
- Spices: cinnamon, curry power
- Seafood: lobster, shrimp, mussels, scallops, squid, anchovy
- Fish: fish cake, salmon, smoked salmon
- Meats: top round steak, meatball, meatloaf, beef brisket, chicken
- Cured meats: salami, deli roast beef, pecorino, prosciutto
Foods that goes well with focaccia
Not only in sandwich, but focaccia also can be great pairing side in a basket of fresh warm bread to serve with main course including soup, pasta, and many more.
- Soup: tomato basil soup, cheddar potato soup, Italian vegetable soup
- Pasta: spaghetti
- Appetizer: caprese
- Salad: greek, caesar salad, panzanella salad
- Dipping sauce: Italian dipping oil, tomato dip, cheese dip
- Breakfast: eggs and bacon, cinnamon and raisin, mixed berries
- hummus
- bruschetta
What flavor goes well with focaccia?
To complement the warm, fragrant and yeasty flavors of focaccia, pair it with savory and sweet ingredients. Most focaccia breads include herbs and olive oil, so look for dipping oil or topping combinations that goes well with those flavors to create a delicious and sophisticated bread.
- focaccia + olive oil + balsamic vinegar + parmesan cheese + thyme + cloves
- focaccia + cream cheese + garlic + parmesan cheese + olive oil
- focaccia + sour cream + tomato + mayonnaise + bacon
- focaccia + cinnamon + figs + plums + sugar
- focaccia + spring onion + capers + olives + butter + basil
What wine goes well with focaccia?
Focaccia is filled with more aromatics compared to any other bread. It is often topped with rosemary, oregano, thyme, leeks, caramelized onions, olives, mushrooms, or tomatoes based on the recipe. Therefore, it is more interesting to pair with a glass of wine.
Here are classic wine selections that go well with focaccia:
- Wine wine: Chardonnay, Gavi, Sauvignon Blanc, Soave Classico, Pinot Blanc, Gaillac white
- Red wine: Barbera
- Sparkling wine: champagne, Blanc de blancs, Sekt, Prosecco
If the focaccia is sprinkled with sea salt or kosher salt, consider pairing with Rosé.
Most often served with white wine, however red wines offer some contrasting notes owing to the berry notes. Other than Barbera, consider Pinot Noir, Lambrusco, and Beaujolais could also do the trick.
Eat with Focaccia: Conclusion
The best part about focaccia bread is altering it to match different tastes. That being said, there are endless possibilities with focaccia bread to make into an appetizer, main entrée or even sides to pair with a course.
With a classic herbed focaccia as appetizer, it can be served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to get started before the main course. Mostly, there are savory focaccia bread but in certain region, this bread can be substituted as a sweet breakfast meal with fruits and cinnamon spices.
To imitate the pizza or savory flatbread, slicing tomato, olives, or even caramelized onions as topping can make this bread even more flavorful.
Plain focaccia can be served warm with soups, pasta, salads, or with hummus depending on your selection of the recipe. Adding a glass of sparkling, white or red wine is highly recommended.
Whether you are adding toppings on focaccia bread or serving with the meal, use these flavor combination and suggested ingredients to enjoy your meal even more.