Zucchini and onion focaccia, easy and super soft. The recipe for zucchini focaccia is a delicious idea to bring a soft and tasty focaccia to the table, topped with vegetables. A vegetarian and vegan-friendly focaccia, very appealing, suitable for everyone and perfect to get children to eat zucchini — ideal as a starter when cut into small pieces, great as a quick dinner and also wonderful as an afternoon snack. If you’re always looking for recipes with zucchini that please everyone, even the usual grumblers who don’t like this wonderful summer vegetable, you absolutely must try the easy zucchini focaccia quick and tasty made with brewer’s yeast: a soft focaccia made with few ingredients, tall and fluffy with many thinly sliced zucchinis on top! A equally tasty variation of the focaccia with peppers and the Focaccia with potatoes and onions that I made some time ago.
The home of focaccia is Liguria, but we know that focaccia is also a typical preparation of the traditional Italian cuisine and in all our regions it is made in a thousand different ways. As a true Sicilian I make the focaccia with re-milled durum wheat semolina and it turns out super tall and fluffy, but you can make it with all-purpose flour and it will be just as perfect, or even mix the two flours for an impeccable result! In my house everyone adores focaccias: I love the onion focaccia, my husband adores the rustic focaccia on a baking stone, my sons go crazy for soft milk rolls and Irene is mad about the sweet Genoese focaccia. There are many versions of focaccia on my blog and since the zucchini one was missing, I decided to add it. The recipe for zucchini focaccia is not difficult to prepare; in fact it is really easy and the dough can be made by hand with no problem. Once ready and after a few hours of leavening it will be ready to use and perfect for making this fragrant focaccia, crunchy on the outside but super soft inside, excellent when served warm but delicious at room temperature. Want to try it too? Let’s go to the kitchen and discover together the recipe for zucchini and onion focaccia — you’ll see how successful it will be. But before getting your hands on the dough, I suggest you take a look at my special dedicated to focaccias and remember that if you want to stay updated on all my recipes you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here).
Take a look:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Rest time: 3 Hours
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients to make zucchini focaccia
- 1 3/4 cups re-milled durum wheat semolina
- 1 cup water (lukewarm)
- 1 1/3 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dry yeast (or 12 g fresh)
- 1 tsp sugar (level)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 red onion
- 1 large zucchini (large)
- to taste black pepper
Tools
- Bowl
- Baking pan
- Oven
Steps to make zucchini focaccia
Pour the flours into a bowl — you can use semolina as I did or replace it with all-purpose flour. Add the yeast and mix it in the bowl with half of the water, add the sugar and stir.
Add the oil, the salt and a little more water, mix roughly, pour in the rest of the liquid, mix again and let rest for 10 minutes. Depending on the flour used, remember to adjust the amount of liquid by adding it little by little; semolina usually absorbs more liquid than all-purpose flour.
Knead in the bowl and then move to the work surface.
Work the dough without adding flour; it will initially be very sticky, but after about ten minutes it will gain structure and you will be able to shape a smooth, even loaf. Having a stand mixer will make everything easier, so use it if you can.
Place the dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and keep it warm, for example in the oven with the light on, so that it triples in volume. It may take from two to three hours, but times are indicative. In any case, wait until the dough has tripled.
Once risen, turn the dough out onto a baking pan about 30 cm in diameter (about 12 inches) or roughly 25×30 cm (about 10×12 inches), lined with parchment paper lightly brushed with oil. With oiled hands and without deflating it too much, spread the dough until it covers the pan. Return it to a warm place to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
Just before the dough is ready, peel the onion, rinse it and slice it thinly; rinse the zucchini and slice into thin rounds. Put everything into a bowl, add a good drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt and mix.
When the dough has risen, use your fingertips to make the classic dimples in the focaccia and distribute the prepared vegetables on top, finishing with a sprinkle of pepper. Bake in a preheated oven at 392°F on the lower-middle rack (second from the bottom) in convection mode for 20-25 minutes or until golden — bake the same way if using a conventional oven. Watch that the vegetables do not burn; if they do, lower the temperature a little.
Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before serving.
Our zucchini and onion focaccia is ready to serve. Any leftovers can be well wrapped in parchment paper and enjoyed the next day, warm or at room temperature.
