Delicious, thick, but light in texture, this roasted tomato focaccia is flavoured and topped with garlic, herbs, olive oil and roasted tomatoes.
Believe it or not, even after I made 5 batches of Roasted Tomato Marinara, I still had a few roma tomatoes left. So I roasted them off whole and used them to make this delicious Roasted Tomato and Garlic Focaccia.
It’s really easy to roast off roma tomatoes whole. Simply toss with a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper, cut a slit in each one (so they don’t explode :) and roast in a hot oven for about an hour. Transfer to a bag and refrigerate or freeze. Use them just as you would canned whole tomatoes.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Here are the simple ingredients you will need …
Yeast – you can use either Active Dry Yeast or Instant Yeast to make this focaccia.
Tomatoes – fresh roma or plum tomatoes are best, but you can also use whole canned plum tomatoes, drained well.
Garlic powder – garlic powder is used here instead of fresh garlic, as the fresh garlic tends to scorch when exposed on the topping. Scorched garlic is not a pleasant flavour, so the powder brings the flavour without that risk.
Recipe Tips
As for the focaccia, I baked mine up in a brownie pan, that is 7×11, so it’s nice and thick. If you don’t have that size of pan, just use an 8 or 9-inch round cake pan. A 9×13-inch pan would be too big, as the focaccia would be far too thin.
Serve this focaccia with a bit of olive oil/balsamic for dipping and enjoy as a snack, with a salad or in place of garlic bread with your pasta. Freezes well, so don’t worry about left-overs going to waste.
Making ahead, Storing and Freezing
This focaccia is best enjoyed on the day it is baked, but is still quite nice the next day. You can also freeze focaccia up to 2 months.
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Get the Recipe: Roasted Tomato Focaccia
Ingredients
For the focaccia dough:
- 1/2 teaspoon active dry or instant yeast
- 3/4 cup water, lukewarm
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, use less if using fine salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, *see Note 1 below
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
Herb oil:
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh basil leaves, chopped, or 3/4 tsp. dried basil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh parsley leaves, chopped, or 3/4 tsp. dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- Salt and pepper
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 8 Roasted Roma Tomatoes, or 8 canned plum tomatoes drained, (roasting instructions below)
- 2-3 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- *To Roast Roma Tomatoes: Preheat oven to 425 F. Toss roma tomatoes in a large roasting pan. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Cut a small slit in the top of each tomato. Roast in preheated oven for about 1 hour. Cool, then transfer to a bowl or bag and refrigerate or freeze for later.
- To make the focaccia dough: In a large bowl of the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the yeast with the warm water and sugar. Allow to stand for 5 minutes. Add olive oil, salt, garlic powder and 2 cups of the flour. Mix to combine. Start adding additional flour, in small increments, until you have a smooth, moist dough.
- Transfer dough to a floured work surface. Shape in to a ball, cover with a clean tea towel and let stand 20 minutes.
- Prepare the Herb Oil: Combine all the Herb Oil ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.
- Once focaccia dough has rested, grease a 7x11-inch pan (or 8 or 9-inch round cake pagenerously with olive oil. Roll out the dough in to the exact size of your pan (using a bit of flour if sticky), then transfer to your prepared pan, pressing it right out to the edges of the pan with your finger-tips. Spread herb oil evenly over-top and refrigerate dough, uncovered for 3 hours.
- After 3 hours, remove focaccia from refrigerator. Drain any liquid from the tomatoes and hand-crush them over-top of your focaccia, keeping them quite chunky. Top with some grated parmesan cheese.
- Preheat oven to 325 F. Cover focaccia loosely with greased plastic wrap and set pan on top of preheating oven to rise for 30-40 minutes, or until dough has risen slightly above the sides of the pan.
- Bake in 325 F. oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Cut into square, wedges or slices and enjoy as is or serve with an olive oil/balsamic dip. Freezes well.
Notes
- I prefer to use garlic powder here vs. fresh garlic, as fresh garlic tends to burn on top of the focaccia, which instroduces a bitter flavour to the bread. If you'd prefer to use fresh garlic, use 2 or 3 cloves chopped and place them underneath the tomatoes to keep them from scorching.
More Focaccia Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
How do you store the leftovers? I am not sure if I need to refrigerate or I can store on the counter? Thanks!
Hi Meagan, I just keep it on the counter, wrapped, so it doesn’t dry out.
Hi,
Making this in quarantine :) love focaccia. I have a question though. I’m using the canned plum tomato, do i still roast them prior or just drain and put directly on dough?
Hi Christina, I think even with canned I would still roast them to really concentrate the tomato flavour and dry them out a bit. You kind of want a tomato-paste-like consistency for best flavour. Let me know how it works out :)
I would give this recipe 6 or more stars if I could. It turned out great. Smells wonderful and tastes fantastic. The best recipe I have found and believe me I have been trying for years. THANK YOU 😊
So glad you enjoyed this, Dianne! It’s one of my favourites :) Thanks!
Instead of leaving it in the fridge for 3 hours, can I leave it overnight and bake the next day?
Hi Amira, I haven’t tested it with an overnight fridge rise, but it would work. It may over-rise however, but possibly not fatally :)
Focaccia bread is seriously one of my weaknesses. Whenever it’s around I have to do some serious self restraint from not eating the entire loaf in .012 seconds. It’s just SO GOOD! And this one looks amazing, Jennifer! LOVE the roasted tomatoes with garlic. Super simple, Hella delicious! I’ll take 7 loaves. ;) Cheers!
Thanks so much, Cheyanne and it’s my weakness, too :)
What a stunning focaccia! I could easily turn this into a meal along with a good salad :).
Thanks Laura and me, too!
Oh my!! This is pretty much pizza foccacia…but so much better!! LOVE those tomatoes!
Thanks Katrina and yes, it is just like pizza! :)
What a terrific treat with those roasted tomatoes. I adore bread and wish I could eat it at every meal. This focaccia looks wonderful. Pinning!
Thanks Tricia and I so enjoyed the whole roasted tomatoes. Never really thought of doing them that way, but they’re just like canned tomatoes and so useful!
I love all your bread recipes, Jennifer, but I have a special place in my heart for foccacia, it was the very first bread I learned to make and I love how easy it is…those tomatoes are gorgeous!
Thanks Sue. I love focaccia too, especially with all the different toppings you can put on them!
Focaccia has been on my bucket list for quite a while Jennifer! I’m not very talented at baking yeast breads, but this looks so delicious, I think I’ll have to challenge myself! Love the roasted tomatoes are garlic topping!
Thanks so much, Mary Ann :) I think focaccia is a great challenge. It only uses a little yeast and uses a slow rise (refrigerated), so it doesn’t need a lot of help to do it’s thing!