Quick Focaccia

Jud is such a sucker for cupons. He was looking through the coupons for Costco and found a tomato basil soup that was already made and there was a coupon for $2.00 off. We bought it and I made this focaccia bread to go with it for lunch yesterday. It is a wonderful recipe. You can use almost any herbs that you have on hand. I didn't have any parmesan cheese and it worked fine with the soup.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
1 quarter ounce package (2 1/2 teaspoons) yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
1 Tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan
2 teaspoons chopped fresh romemary leaves
Coarse salt to taste
Lightly grease a baking pan, 13" X 9". In a bowl stir together water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand until foamy, about 5 min. In another bowl stir together flour and table salt. Gradually stir into yeast mixture until mixture forms a soft dough. On a lightly floured work surface with floured hands, knead dough 5 min. or until smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball. Invert bowl over dough and let rest 10 min. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough into a 13" X 9" rectangle and transfer to the baking pan, pressing into corners. Let dough rise, covered loosely with clean towel, in a warm place 30 min.. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle dough with parmesan, rosemary, coarse salt, and pepper to taste. Press indentations about 1/4 inch deep and 1 inch apart all over the dough with lightly oiled fingertips ( I use olive oil) and bake focaccia in middle of oven 20 min. or until golden. Cool focaccia in pan on a rack.

Today (Nov.13,2009) I used the focaccia bread to make a chicken/pesto pizza.  After baking the focaccia bread , I let it cool a little and then spread it with pesto sauce and topped with baked chicken and mozorella cheese. It was awesome.