Chef Giada De Laurentiis partners with Peroni to bring Italy’s historic wine windows to the United States. – Photo courtesy of Peroni
I’ve been making focaccia bread wrong my entire life — and it wasn’t until chef Giada De Laurentiis shared her own focaccia recipe with me that I realized I’d been baking without one secret (read: boozy) ingredient: crisp Peroni Lager Beer.
“Peroni has been a part of my family’s drinking since I can remember; it was always on the table,” De Laurentiis tells me in a video call. Evidently, it’s also been a part of her focaccia-making, too.
The Emmy Award-winning chef and restaurateur has spent her career bringing Italy’s culinary triumphs to life in new ways, both in the US and in her own kitchen. Now, in her latest partnership with Peroni, De Laurentiis is reimagining one of Italy’s most beloved traditions, the buchette del vino (aka historic wine windows) with a stateside Italian aperitivo experience — and a spirited, new twist on summer focaccia.
Get an authentic taste of Italy at home with Giada De Laurentiis’s Peroni Portals activation. – Photo courtesy of Peroni
The secret to Giada De Laurentiis’s summer focaccia
Just when I thought focaccia couldn’t get any more Italian (or delicious), along comes De Laurentiis’s unique bread recipe — which you can make with just a handful of ingredients and serve at any summer soirée. Here’s her Peroni focaccia bread recipe in full:
Ingredients:
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon active or instant dry yeast
1 bottle of Peroni (at room temperature)
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
Whisk together flour, salt, sugar, and yeast.
Add Peroni and olive oil into the dry mixture; stir thoroughly until combined and let it sit for 15 minutes.
Fold dough over itself about 12 times (the first of four folds) and let rest for 15 minutes. Repeat this process three more times, with 15-minute rest time intervals in between each.
Cover and let the dough rise for 1 hour.
Then, coat a 9″ baking pan in 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
Transfer the risen dough to the pan (gently), and flip the dough around so that it’s well-covered in the olive oil; push the dough to the edges of the pan.
Cover and let the dough rise for 1-1.5 hours.
Once the focaccia dough has risen, coat your fingertips in olive oil; without deflating the dough, create dimples in it.
Drizzle 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil all over the surface. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
Bake the dough at 475-degrees Fahrenheit for around 20 minutes or until golden. Remove, cool, and serve.
Pro tip from Giada: Make your focaccia in advance, that way you can cut down on time spent in the kitchen (and of using your oven during peak hours).
Close-up of woman’s hands adding olives to homemade focaccia dough with fresh herbs. – Photo courtesy of Getty
How Giada De Laurentiis is having a ‘Euro Summer’ at home
Coming to the West Village, NY and — if you’re lucky — a city near you this summer, De Laurentiis is launching ‘Peroni Portals’ in partnership with the famed Italian beer brand, drawing inspiration from Italy’s iconic wine windows (but with less wine and much more ale).
“It’s sort of an idea based on aperitivo hour; the wine windows, community, people getting together. It’s very much La Dolce Vita… very much what Italians do so well, and I think what Americans love about Italian culture,” says De Laurentiis.
The summer collaboration will give Americans a chance to indulge in the luxuries of an Italian summer, sans the hefty cost or actual European trip. Just pop by one of these Peroni Portals to be served a chilled Peroni through the window, alongside a Peroni-infused focaccia of De Laurentiis’s own making.
“Because I am a food person, we’re also going to serve some focaccia, and the focaccia that we’re gonna serve has actual Peroni beer in it, to create this really light focaccia that I think is going to work so beautifully,” says De Laurentiis.
Giada De Laurentiis’s best summer hosting tip: ‘Don’t stress’
So, you’ve made your authentic focaccia bread — now what do you pair it with?
According to De Laurentiis, the trick to creating a spread that’s true to the Italian spirit is less about a few big dishes and more about lots of snacky ones.
“It’s just about learning to put together these antipasto platters, letting everybody kind of create their own, and using their imagination; talking about ingredients, talking to each other while they’re doing it. That’s the whole point of all of this,” explains De Laurentiis.
Use your Peroni focaccia bread as the centerpiece of your summer party spread, and then pair it with lots of complimentary grazing boards.
“What I like to do is kind of a set up outside; I just do big platters of cheeses and meats, some Taralli, which are little Italian crackers — they have different flavors, so you pick what you like. And then olives, and just a couple of different platters of aperitivos, snacky foods.”
And to top it all off: “Peronis chilled in a nice ice bucket.” Of course!
Dining and Cooking