page_title: Focaccia
section_title: Etymology and regional variants
hierarchical_section_title: Focaccia / Etymology and regional variants
caption_attribution_description: Focaccia di Recco - Tradizionale
context_page_description: Focaccia is a flat oven-baked Italian bread product similar in style and texture to pizza dough. Focaccia can be used as a side to many meals or as sandwich bread.
  Focaccia al rosmarino is a common focaccia style in Italian cuisine that may be served as an antipasto, appetizer, table bread, or snack.
context_section_description: In Ancient Rome, panis focacius was a flat bread baked on the hearth. The word is derived from the Latin focus meaning "hearth, place for baking".  The basic recipe is thought by some to have originated with the Etruscans, but today it is widely associated with Ligurian cuisine.
  As the tradition spread, the different dialects and diverse local ingredients resulted in a large variety of bread (some may even be considered cake). Due to the number of small towns and hamlets dotting the coast of Liguria, the focaccia recipe has fragmented into countless variations (from the biscuit-hard focaccia di Camogli to the oily softness of the one made in Voltri), with some bearing little resemblance to its original form. The most extreme example is a specialty called focaccia col formaggio ("focaccia with cheese") which is made in Recco, near Genoa. Other than the name, this Recco version bears no resemblance to other focaccia varieties, having a stracchino cheese filling sandwiched between two layers of paper-thin dough.
  Out of Liguria, focaccia comes in many regional variations and its recipe, its texture, its flavor remarkably varies from north to south of Italy. In some parts of the Northwest, for example, a popular recipe is focaccia dolce ("sweet focaccia"), consisting of a basic focaccia base and sprinkled lightly with sugar, or including raisins, honey, or other sweet ingredients. Another sweet focaccia from the Northeast is focaccia veneta ("Venetian focaccia"), a typical cake of the Venetian Easter tradition: it is based on eggs, sugar and butter (instead of olive oil and salt) and it looks quite similar to panettone or to another Venetian cake like pandoro.
  In South Tyrol and in the small village of Krimml in Austria, Osterfochaz (in Krimml Fochiz) is a traditional Easter gift from godparents to their godchildren.  It is made slightly thinner in the centre so that dyed eggs can be placed there.
caption: Focaccia col formaggio or focaccia di Recco, a typical variety of focaccia made in Recco
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