This is my onion, potato and herb focaccia. It is inspired by my new food hero, Gabriele Bonci and the naturally leavened pizzas he makes at his restaurant Pizzarium in Rome. I’ve never tried them, but he is widely known as a pizza/focaccia/flatbread wizard. It took parts of 3 separate days until it found its way to the oven. Slow rise. First you gotta make a sponge: 1 tablespoon sourdough starter fed with 100 grams of water and 100 hundred grams of flour – let this ripen overnight at room temperature. Then put 400 grams of cold water in a mixing bowl and add 100 grams of the sponge and 500 grams of flour. Mix this together with your hands until it just comes together. Let this mixture rest for 30-60 minutes. Then add the salt and olive oil and work it together until it is smooth and shiny. This is a no-knead recipe and the gluten is developed by gently folding the dough on itself every half-hour for the first four hours or so. You definitely have to be home for the bulk fermentation on this one. Don’t be too aggressive with the folds, as you don’t want to push too much air out of the dough. Next, sprinkle a layer of flour on a work surface and dump the dough out. Watch this video starting at 6:25 to see how Gabriele stretches the dough and puts it on the oiled sheet-pan. My description will not work half as well as just watching the master do his thing. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rise in the fridge overnight. You could let it rise at room temp and bake it at this point, but the flavour and texture will be much nicer if you let if rise nice and slow in the fridge. Take it out the next day and let it come back to room temperature. It should rise about 30% more and develop some nice air bubbles. Get your oven to 500 degrees F and put in the pan covered in whatever topping you like. Tomatoes, herbs and lots of olive oil is always a good place to start, but the sky is the limit with toppings. Bake for 20 minutes or until nicely browned and crispy and then enjoy with friends.