What Is Focaccia? How It Compares to Pizza Dough

Focaccia is an Italian flatbread made with high-hydration dough enriched with olive oil, dimpled with fingertips before baking, and typically topped with coarse salt, herbs, or vegetables. It originated in the Liguria region of northern Italy and is considered one of the ancestors of modern pizza. Focaccia shares foundational DNA with pizza dough — flour, water, yeast, salt — but diverges in hydration level, fat content, handling technique, and baking method. Understanding focaccia illuminates the broader family of Italian flatbreads that pizza belongs to.

Where Does Focaccia Come From?

Focaccia has ancient roots. The name derives from the Latin "panis focacius" — bread baked in the hearth (focus). Roman bakers made flat, olive oil-enriched breads on heated stones, and this tradition persisted through the Middle Ages into modern Liguria. Genoa, the capital of Liguria, is the spiritual home of focaccia, where it is called "fugassa" in the local dialect. Genoese focaccia (focaccia di Genova) is thin, crispy on the outside, soft inside, and glistening with olive oil and coarse salt.

Regional variations span the length of Italy. Focaccia di Recco is stuffed with stracchino cheese between two ultra-thin layers of dough. Focaccia barese from Puglia is topped with tomatoes, olives, and oregano — essentially a cousin of pizza. Focaccia di Voltri (a Genoa neighborhood) is famous for its extreme thinness and high oil content. Each version reflects its local ingredients, climate, and baking tradition.

How Does Focaccia Dough Compare to Pizza Dough?

Focaccia and pizza share four base ingredients — flour, water, yeast, and salt — but the ratios and additions create distinct products.

• Hydration: Focaccia uses 75-85% hydration (75-85g water per 100g flour). Pizza dough uses 58-65%. This extra water creates focaccia's open crumb with large, irregular holes.
• Fat: Focaccia dough contains olive oil mixed into the dough itself, plus more oil poured into the baking pan and drizzled on top. Pizza dough traditionally contains little or no fat, relying on the oven's heat and a light drizzle of oil at the end.
• Shaping: Pizza dough is stretched thin by hand or tossed. Focaccia is poured into an oiled pan and gently spread by hand, then dimpled with fingertips. The dimples serve a purpose — they create pools for olive oil and prevent the dough from rising into a uniform dome.
• Thickness: Focaccia is 1-2 inches thick. Pizza is typically under half an inch in the center (Neapolitan) or about an inch (Detroit/Sicilian).
• Baking temperature: Focaccia bakes at 425-475 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes. Neapolitan pizza bakes at 800+ degrees for 60-90 seconds. This temperature difference produces fundamentally different crusts.

What Is the Dimpling Technique?

Dimpling is the signature gesture of focaccia-making. After the dough has risen in its oiled pan, the baker presses fingertips firmly into the surface, creating deep wells across the entire surface. This technique serves three purposes: it degasses the dough partially (preventing an uneven rise), creates channels that trap olive oil (adding flavor and preventing the surface from drying), and produces the uneven surface texture — peaks that brown and crisp, valleys that stay soft and oil-drenched — that defines focaccia's eating experience.

The oil pools in the dimples during baking, essentially frying the interior of each well while the peaks develop a golden, slightly crunchy crust. This contrast between crispy peaks and soft, oil-soaked valleys is what separates great focaccia from ordinary bread.

Is Focaccia the Ancestor of Pizza?

Most food historians agree that focaccia predates pizza. The flat, olive oil-enriched hearth breads of ancient Rome were focaccia-like, while pizza as we know it — with tomato sauce — could not exist before tomatoes arrived from the Americas in the 16th century. The Neapolitan pizzaioli who created modern pizza in the 18th century were building on a long tradition of flatbreads that included focaccia, piadina, and other regional variations. Pizza is, in a sense, focaccia's thinner, faster, more flamboyant descendant.

Focaccia is pizza's older, calmer relative. Same family, different temperament. Where pizza is fast and fiery, focaccia is slow and olive-oil-drenched. Both are perfect.

How to Eat Focaccia

• Plain: Great focaccia needs nothing but salt and olive oil. Tear it apart with your hands.
• As a sandwich: Split horizontally and fill with prosciutto, mozzarella, and arugula. Classic Italian lunch.
• With soup: Focaccia is the ideal bread for dipping in tomato soup, minestrone, or olive oil and balsamic.
• As an appetizer: Slice into squares or strips and serve alongside hummus, marinara, or whipped ricotta.
• Topped before baking: Cherry tomatoes, rosemary, thinly sliced potatoes, or caramelized onions pressed into the surface before the oven.

Focaccia and Forni

At Forni, our focus is pizza — but our respect for Italian bread traditions runs deep. The same principles that make great focaccia — proper fermentation, quality flour, olive oil, and patience — apply to our 48-hour pizza dough. Both start with the same ingredients. The difference is what happens in the oven: focaccia gets a slow, moderate bake, while our pizza gets 800 degrees of stone-oven fire for 90 seconds. Two paths from the same origin, both delicious. Visit us at 5800 Seminary Rd in Falls Church.

Want to understand the science behind our dough? Read how pizza dough is made →