L’Italia della focaccia
Focaccia, region by region
There is no single focaccia. Every region of Italy has its own — thinner or taller, plain or filled, savory or sweet. Here is where the great styles come from, and how to bake a faithful version at home.
Genoa · Recco · Voltri
Liguria · Liguria
The heartland of Italian focaccia — thin, golden, dimpled and generous with olive oil.
In Genoa, fugassa is an everyday bread, eaten from morning on and even dunked in cappuccino. Along the coast the styles diverge: the tall, blistered focaccia of Voltri and the paper-thin cheese-filled focaccia associated with Recco.
Focaccia di Recco col formaggio is a protected IGP product; our version is a Recco-style home adaptation.
- Focaccia Genovese (Genoese-Style Ligurian Focaccia)The Ligurian everyday classic: thin and low with a shattering oil-fried bottom, a soft salty crumb, and finger-dimples that pool with an olive-oil-and-brine glaze.
- Focaccia di Voltri (Rustic High-Hydration Ligurian Focaccia)The blistered, rustic sister of Genoese focaccia: a very wet, long-worked dough baked over a dusting of cornmeal into a crackly, big-holed crumb with charred bubbles and a whisper of grit on the base.
- Recco-Style Cheese Focaccia (Home Adaptation of Focaccia di Recco)Two wafer-thin, unleavened sheets of dough sealed around molten stracchino, baked blistering hot until the top crackles into golden, cheese-oozing craters — nothing like a fluffy focaccia.
- Caramelized Onion FocacciaDeeply sweet, jammy onions cooked down slow and dark, spread over a golden crust — savory, mellow, and almost caramel-rich.
Bari · the south-east
Puglia · Puglia
Soft, high-hydration focaccia enriched with potato and crowned with tomatoes and olives.
Focaccia barese leans on semolina and boiled potato for a tender, moist crumb, then presses in cherry tomatoes and olives before baking — a sun-warmed, southern character.
Florence · the hills
Tuscany · Toscana
Schiacciata — a leaner, olive-oil-brushed cousin of focaccia, savory or sweet with grapes.
Tuscan schiacciata is “squashed” flatbread, thinner and less oily than Ligurian focaccia. In the autumn grape harvest it turns sweet as schiacciata all’uva, studded with wine grapes.
- Schiacciata Toscana (Tuscan Olive-Oil Flatbread)Tuscany’s lean, crisp flatbread: thinner and lighter than focaccia, blistered gold and brushed with fragrant new olive oil and crunchy coarse salt the moment it leaves the oven.
- Schiacciata all’Uva (Tuscan Sweet Grape Harvest Bread)Tuscany’s sweet harvest bread: a lightly sweetened dough packed and scattered with juicy wine grapes and sugar, baked in autumn until jammy, caramelised and fragrant with must.
Messina · the north-east
Sicily · Sicilia
Focaccia messinese, layered with tuma cheese, escarole, tomato and anchovy.
In Messina, focaccia becomes a savory meal in itself — a soft base topped with tuma, curly endive or escarole, tomato and anchovy. It sits close to Sicily’s sfincione tradition.
The north
Veneto & Lombardy · Veneto e Lombardia
From sweet festive focacce to the onion-and-cheese breads of the lakes.
The north brings sweeter, enriched focacce at holidays, and around the lakes a savory tradition of onion-and-cheese breads in the family of filascetta.
Several northern traditions are cultural context here; dedicated recipes are in development.