Pesto Focaccia | Buddy Oliver

Hi guys, I'm Buddy and today I'm going to be showing you a new recipe from my book Let's Cook. We're going to be making a new potato and pesto focaccia. My mate Max is coming soon so let's crack on. Right, the first thing we have to do is get on with the dough. So we have 300 millilitres of room temperature water and we have 7 grams of yeast. Pour it in there and then we're going to stir it together with a fork to get it all incorporated. Nice, and then once you let that sit I'm going to mix our dry ingredients together. So we're just going to get a teaspoon if I can get it. Get a teaspoon of salt. Just going to mix this all together. Right, there we go. Right, so we're just going to add in our yeast mixture. Get all of it out there. Use the fork to mix it together and when it's incorporated we can start using our hands. So just keep turning the bowl, mixing all together. Make sure it's all getting in there. Keep on taking the flour off the sides. Don't want to miss any of it and then when it starts getting a bit harder we can start using our hands. I think that's good. Right, cool. So now we're just going to put it on the board. We're just gathering all the bits that have fallen off and just kneading it. Right, cool. Let's get some flour. Oh, Mac's here. Come here, Mac. Perfect timing. Now we can get Mac to do the kneading. You all right, buddy? Yeah, you all right, mate? What we're cooking today? So we're making a new potato and pesto focaccia. So just making the dough now. Do you want to have a go, Mac? Do you want to wash your hands first? Yeah. So we need about 10 more minutes for this knead and I'll let Mac do that. I'll have a quick sit down. Is that right? Perfect, perfect. Keep doing that. It's a bit of a workout, this. So how's that going, Mac? Yeah, it's going pretty well. Nearly done, I think. Yeah, it's looking good. Right, what we're going to do is I'm just going to put a bit of oil in the bowl because we're going to put the dough in the bowl and then it's going to double in size. Cool. And then just get this towel. Right, Mac, let's have a look at that. Right, put your finger in it and then if it comes up, it's ready. I think it's ready. Do you want to pop that in there? It's looking good, well done. And then we're going to put a wet, damp tea towel on top. We're going to let that rest for one hour and we're going to come back. What do you want to do for an hour? Bike ride? Yeah, let's do it. Right, Mac, I think the dough's risen. Do you want an apron? Yeah, I might as well. It's going to get messy. Right, so let's have a look at this dough. Wow, it's risen so much. Massive. Right, so here you go, you take that. First, you're going to get that pan oiled up, right? Just a little bit, yeah? Yeah, just a little bit and then get it all in the corners everywhere. All right, Mac, can you pass me those potatoes? Yeah. Thank you. So I've got 250 grams of new potatoes. I'm just going to get a knife and chop them in half, just so they're a bit smaller and pop them back into the bowl. So you're going to use the bridge method, put your fingers in between them and cut in the middle. So these potatoes have been boiled for about 10 minutes. They're nice and soft. So in the bowl, we're going to add our potatoes, some pesto and our mozzarella as well. Right, so Buds, I'm done with this. So what do I do with the breadcrumbs? So I'm just going to add some breadcrumbs into the middle, like that, and then just shake it around so it gets in all the corners, just everywhere. Nice. Make sure it's all even. Perfect. Right, Mac, do you mind passing me the mozzarella and the pesto? Yeah. Thank you. So why are we adding the breadcrumbs to the bottom of the pan? To make sure it's nice and crisp on the bottom, it's going to be really delicious. So to our mixture of potatoes, we're going to add one or two dollops of pesto and then we're just going to break up some mozzarella into that as well. I'm going to mix it all together with my hands. It's smelling amazing. Right, Mac, so what you can do with that dough is you can put it on your board. There we go. Look at that. And then just punch it. Punch it? Yeah, just punch it and let all the air out. And pop it onto a tray. Just spread it about? Yeah, just make sure it gets everywhere. And then what you can do is just push your finger into it to mould it everywhere. Nice. Looking great. So this is now mixed in. Yeah, all incorporated. Now I'm just going to quickly wash my hands. Nice, it's looking great, Mac. Right, so what do we do with this now? So we've got our mixture here and we can just add this on the top. Cool. So add this all on top. The fun of this recipe is it's quite rough. It doesn't really matter what it looks like because it will all turn out good at the end. Then you can just use your hands to spread it about. You've just got to make sure it's all incorporated. Make sure every little bit's got a potato, some mozzarella. Now we're going to add a bit of olive oil on the top. Season with salt. Mac, do you want to do that? Yeah, I'll season it. Try it. Very generous, Mac. I'm very happy with that. We're going to put a wet tea towel in again. I'm going to let this rise for another hour. Crikey, this is taking a long time, isn't it? Yeah, I know, but in the end it's worth it. Right, what are you going to do now, Mac? Rugby? Let's do it. Let's go. Right, Mac, let's have a look at this. Go on, then. That was good fun there. There we go. Right. Wow. It's got so much bigger. Looks really nice. Right, nice. So we're going to put this in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes at 220 temperature. Nice. Yeah, I think that's it. 220 degrees. I'm going to pop this in. You've just got to be really gentle with it so you don't knock any air out. There we go. So, Mac, that's going to go for 20 minutes. Give it a little clean up. Yeah. So we just got it out of the oven. It's been cooling for about five minutes. Mac, do you want to give it a try? Yeah, go on, then. Thin slices. Wow, it's looking great. Look at that, Mac. Look at the mozzarella. Yeah, it's really fluffy. It needs to be tasty. And look at the bottom as well. It's got all that crispy stuff on the bottom. Wow. Shall we give it a go? Yeah, go on, then. Right, let's cut this bit in half. I'm excited. Ready? Yeah. Three, two, one, go. That is so good. It's really cheesy. Fluffy, cheesy, got potato in it. It's great. It's really nice. It was really easy to do as well. It was. And it's nice. Yeah. It did take a bit of time, but it was worth it in the end. So there you go, guys. That's my super easy focaccia recipe. Super fun, super easy, and super delicious. It's in my new book, Let's Cook. So get yourself a copy and get cooking. Bye, guys.