This Crispy Sheet Pan Focaccia with Rosemary is made in a large sheet pan, crispy on the bottom, soft and salty on the top, baked in olive oil, and sprinkled with buttery rosemary. It is the BEST. So SO good. You can make this as a side, a snack, as sandwich bread, or we’ve actually just eaten this for dinner along with a huge salad.
It is great to freeze and reheat, making it a really good quick lunch option for kids. It's also great to reheat during the work week if you work from home (or have a toaster oven at the office), or just on the weekend when you are sprinting around the town/house. Just pull out of the freezer and toast in a toaster oven… warm, salty, crispy, filling.
Rosemary
Rosemary, which is sprinkled on the top of this focaccia, is an herb that I first learned that I loved when visiting Girona. Girona is a small inland town towards the north eastern coast of Spain, not to far from Barcelona. We visited Girona when we lived in Spain for two years back in 2013.
We were walking around the town, exploring, and starving when we kept seeing a number of people walking around with pizza in their hands. We followed the people walking around eating pizza and ended up at a cafe style pizza place that specialized in Roman style pizza. The Roman style pizza had thinly sliced potatoes and fresh rosemary and it was incredible. We found some steps nearby and enjoyed every little bite along with a Coke. This was at the time when Coca Cola did the campaign with names on Coke cans – I got “Mama”.
The rosemary was so good and so fresh and fragrant and buttery. I didn’t know much about rosemary before then, other than it came in a spice jar and was seldom ever used. I now love rosemary and have learned how different fresh rosemary is, and how rosemary straight from the garden is 1000x times better than fresh store-bought rosemary (though I’m not knocking fresh store bought, we buy it all the time).
This focaccia is inspired by that rosemary pizza in Girona, the Ligurian Focaccia on Salt Fat Acid Heat on Netflix, and our most-loved Grandma Pie pizza.
Notes on Crispy Sheet Pan Focaccia with Rosemary:
- It is important to use fresh rosemary. Fresh rosemary from the grocery store is great, but if you have a home garden, or grow herbs indoors, I would definitely recommend incorporating rosemary into your garden. Even fresh rosemary from the store pales in comparison to rosemary straight from the garden. It is so much softer, more fragrant, more buttery than fresh rosemary from the store. Though store bought is great too. I use it all the time.
- This recipe uses a salt water brine technique that I learned from watching Salt Fat Acid Heat on Netflix with Samin Nosrat, author of the book by the same name. You disolve salt in water and pour it over the top of the focaccia. It gives it a wonderfully salty and soft top, while allowing the bottom to get crispy. This style of Focaccia is from a region in Italy known as Liguria, the northern crescent shaped region on the Mediterranean not far from France which includes Cinque Terre.
- Letting the dough rise overnight is actually a really nice way to do make this on your own time, either after work, or after the kids are in bed. You’re using your hands a lot so it can be relaxing and meditative and it’s a really convenient way to get warm fresh food on the table the next day with minimal work while you likely have so many day time distractions.
- Adding the ½ cup of olive oil and placing the sheet pan on the lowest rack makes the focaccia extra crispy on the bottom, but still soft on top.
- *I make the salt brine with ½ tsp salt in ½ cup of water and I love it. It is so salty and amazing. Though this may just be too salty for some people’s pallets, which is totally fine. Just reduce the salt to ¼ tsp in ½ cup of water.
Crispy Sheet Pan Focaccia: FAQs
It is from a region in Italy known as Liguria, the northern crescent shaped region on the Mediterranean, bordering France which includes Cinque Terre.
Yes. Cut up slices and place them in a quart or gallon bag in the freezer. To reheat stick them in a toaster oven or back on a backing sheet with a little more olive oil at 350°F for 5-10 minutes.
Crispy Sheet Pan Focaccia is ready to be baked when the dough rises to the top edge of the sheet pan. This is about 45 minutes from when you pressed the dough into the baking sheet, depending on how hot or cold the room temperature is.
The focaccia will be fresh for 1-2 days, but can be kept in the refrigerator or freezer to extend its life. Just reheat in the toaster or oven.
Looking for more bread recipes? Try this Homemade Pita Bread
If you make these Crispy Sheet Pan Focaccia with Rosemary, I'd love to hear from you and learn how it went. Leave a rating and a comment down below and let me know how it turns out. Your feedback means a lot!
Crispy Sheet Pan Focaccia with Rosemary
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 ¾ cups water
- 1 package yeast
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- 2 ½ tsp salt
- 4 cups flour (all-purpose or bread flour)
Toppings
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 sprigs rosemary, leaves removed and minced
- ½ cup warm water
- ½ tsp salt or reduce to ¼ tsp, see note*
Instructions
- Microwave the water in a large bowl for about 30 seconds or until warm, but not hot. Add the yeast and allow to sit for ten minutes until it starts to bubble.
- Add the olive oil, salt and two cups flour and combine roughly with a spoon. Add the remaining two cups flour and again combine roughly with a spoon. Turn out onto a flat surface and knead the dough for ten minutes.
- Place the smooth ball of dough back in the bowl and cover in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise in the fridge for 24 hours. Or alternatively place in warm spot and allow to double, 1-2 hours.
- If the dough was in the fridge overnight, take out and leave on the counter to bring it up to room temperature (or at the back of a warm oven, or by a window in the sun).
- Pour ½ cup olive oil onto a large baking sheet. Move the dough from the bowl to the baking sheet and using your hands gently start to spread the dough out to fill the shape of the rectangular baking sheet. The dough will be elastic and will pull back towards the center. Keep working the dough and stretch it all the way to the edges and corners of the baking sheet. This will take a little persistence and you’ll get lots of olive oil on your hands –that’s part of the fun!
- Once the dough is stretched out to cover the baking sheet, cover it in plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 40 minutes in a warm place. I put it on top towards the back of the stove with the oven on underneath at 350°F so that it warms up that part of the kitchen especially in cooler months.
- Once the dough has risen to about the top of the rim of the baking sheet, remove the plastic wrap and preheat the oven to 400°F. Move a rack to the bottom of the oven.
- Gently press your fingers into the dough to create rows of dimples in the dough, about 1 inch apart. Add a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle the rosemary evenly over the dough.
- Combine ½ cup warm water and salt. Stir to dissolve. Slowly pour the salt water into each of the dimples in the dough.
- Bake on the lowest rack at 400°F for 16-18 minutes.
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