Summer Focaccia w/ Corn, Cheddar, & Chorizo

Well, well, well.

Here she is, referring to herself in the third person and pulling the same bullshit as always.

It’s me! The person who pays for this domain name and then doesn’t use it! I’m back, and flakey as ever (should that be my new blog name for a blog exclusively about puff pastry?!)

I’ll spare you all the usual excuses – it’s been busy! I changed jobs (lol, a year ago)! I moved again (uh, in March)! 

Either way I’m back, and I baked some focaccia earlier this month and thought, “Hm. This is good. I should take some photos and tell all my many loyal followers how I did this. They miss me and I musn’t deny them any longer.” 

It’s important to maintain one’s delusions of popularity. 

Ok, on with it. As I clearly haven’t changed much during my unintentional sabbatical, I suppose it makes sense to stay on brand with a bread recipe. I wouldn’t want to rock the boat too much in my triumphant return.

Focaccia is one of my favorite things to make for gatherings – super simple and approachable, endlessly adaptable, and still sufficiently impressive. A real crowd-pleaser. Plus it’s soaked with olive oil and generously sprinkled with sea salt – what could be better?

It’s been heavy in my rotation lately – I’ll find almost any excuse to make it. An extra sprig or two of rosemary? Focahtch it. Throwing yourself your own 30th birthday party when you really should be saving that cash? Focahtch it. Are you a grown up who can do whatever they want (within reason), whenever they want (within reason)? FO. CAHTCH. YEAH!

Having made the usual, “garden-variety” focaccias recently (meaning rosemary and sea salt – a classic and by no means boring!), I decided to give my most recent guy a summer spin, complete with farmer’s market produce and herbs from my very own concrete backyard. 

Corn is in season, and thank goodness, because the corn+cured meat combination is really rockin’ my socks these days. There’s a stand at the Grand Army Plaza greenmarket from Vermont and they sell dry cured meats. Well darn if those aren’t all the magic words you want to hear! We picked up some chorizo there before heading to one of my favorites, the flower stand, who also happened to have bi-color corn for the best price that day. It was a good day at the market, for sure.

After picking up lots more summer produce, we went home, where my focaccia dough was already resting in the fridge

The recipe I use calls for a long, cold rise. You can take a few minutes (literally) to mix the dough and then stick it away for a day or two or whenever you want to bake it off. (I mean, three days, tops – let’s not be crazy here.) Perfect for those of us who find it hard to stick to deadlines! (I meant to post this blog two days ago. I could have made a whole new focaccia by now.)

Sunday afternoon, I pulled that doughy babe out of the fridge to come to room temperature and I leisurely pulled it together along with some pre-dinner snacks while Mack worked on a pork tenderloin (more on that to come soon, featuring peaches!).

After a sprinkle each of chorizo, corn, cheddar (Cabot, naturally), and of course, plenty of Maldon sea salt, into the oven it went. Fifteen minutes later, out it came again, bronzed, fluffy, and ready to party!

And just like that – A Pinch of This (.nyc) is back and, much like that delicious focaccia I described one whole sentence ago, ready to party. Hit your local greenmarket this weekend, support those farmers pick yourself up some toppings, and FO. CAHTCH. ‘EM.

See you soon! I promise!

Focaccia w/ Corn, Cheddar, & Chorizo

Recipe directly from Saltie’s via Food52, but halved

Yields: Half a sheet tray of focaccia

Ingredients:

3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon active dry yeast

1 ¾ cup warm water

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling (I always eyeball this)

1 corn cob, cooked and taken off the cob (whichever way you like!)

2 ounces dried chorizo, diced

2 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded

A bunch of assorted tender green herbs, torn (I used parsley + Thai basil – Cilantro would be great here)

Maldon sea salt, for sprinkling

Instructions:

1. Follow the Saltie’s focaccia recipe (again, found here). A reminder that the above ingredients are listed for a half portion. I’ll also note that I like to bake my focaccia in an enamel baking dish because it’s deeper and I may or may not have smoked out my kitchen when I used too much olive oil in a focaccia and it spilled out of the traditional rimmed baking sheet.
2. After spreading the dough out in your pan and before dimpling it, sprinkle on the chorizo, corn, and cheese. Then play that dough like a piano and make sure to push some of the toppings down and therefore into the dough.
3. Bake per the recipe at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes, turning the pan once mid-way through cooking time.
4. For optimal enjoyment, serve al fresco with a couple of watermelon margaritas. You’ve just hit a summer high.