Start your day with a slice of focaccia (two is even better!), you won’t regret it!
Focaccia is a way of life
It’s useless to say… Genoese people are very proud of their Focaccia. Maybe too much because if they see it in a bakery even just 20 Km away from the centre they start complaining. So they start to say that one cannot be even called “focaccia” as the real one is just the one you can find in Genova! (even though it looks exactly the same!) You know all Italians are obsessed by their food. They always complain when they are abroad (not me! I am very happy to discover new food and ingredients combinations!). In conclusion please! If you are in centre Genoa be sure you eat the original focaccia.
Focaccia recipe
But first of all what is focaccia? It is made with a mix similar to the white bread one (flour, water, salt, yeast, olive oil) but the procedures to prepare it are completely different. Here you can find a very good home version recipe, (and a lot of traditional recipes! Thank you Enrica for your love for this city!).
How do you have to call focaccia like a PRO?
Fügassa is its name in the genoese dialect (pronunciation: feeu’gassa). So now, if you want to buy a slice of focaccia you have to ask: “Buongiorno, posso avere un pezzo di fügassa?” (pron.: Bwon’dℨgorno, posso avairai u’n paizzou dee feeu’gassa?”) that literally means: “Good mornig, may I have a piece of fügassa?”. Ok you are a PRO fügassa eater, congrats!
When am I supposed to eat focaccia?
You can have focaccia at any time during the day: for breakfast, a second breakfast, lunch, a mid noon snack, pre dinner, dinner, or at night after three beers at the pub. For sure if you start your day with a piece of focaccia and a cappuccino you immediately feel better 😉
If you want to become a genoese you have to dip the focaccia inside the cappuccino. We usually do it with plain focaccia or (for advanced level) with the onion focaccia.
The real focaccia
Not all focaccias are the same, let me suggest you to try the original plain one first (my favorite). You can find a good focaccia almost everywhere in the city but I want the best for you, so I suggest enter a Panificio (italian bakery) only if you see the QUI LA VERA FOCACCIA GENOVESE sticker on the door.
These signs means that focaccia is made following the original recipe and the bakery has received a special recognition for that. I don’t buy focaccia if I don’t see this sticker, because in 40 years I tried tons of focaccia and I am more exigent now, so I pretend the best one.
Plain or not?
Another very good and genoese kind of focaccia is the “focaccia con le cipolle” (pronunciation: fouckatcha con lai cheepollai, translation: onion focaccia).
Today you can choose focaccia between a lot of condiments: tomatoes, olives, rosemary, sage, peppers, nutella, courgettes, aubergines, cheese, salami, ham, bacon, and more….
It is a perfect snack as it’s good, cheap, you can eat it while you are walking through genoese streets.
There are other two kind of special focaccia: focaccia di Recco and focaccia di Voltri, but I will talk about them in two separate posts as they deserve a bit of your time.
So for now try our plain focaccia dipping it in the cappuccino for breakfast and experience some special focaccia for lunch, I hope you will enjoy it!
Thank you for your time. Have a great day! And if you start it with a slice of focaccia I’m sure it will be!!