The taste of summer

A few years ago, I spent the bulk of a summer in Italy singing in this opera program. While the singing experiences were more chaotic than anything, the cultural experience of living in Italy was truly unforgettable. Since then, I still have a hard time thinking of summer tastes and smells that don't have some kind of Italian influence. Some people may think of freshly-mowed lawns as the official scent of summer; mine would be freshly-cut sweet basil or rosemary.

Last night I was asked to bring a side dish to a dinner. At the time of our planning, the menu had not been planned out- so I immediately fell back on my Italian-inspired list of foods. Originally, I was considering making a batch of risotto. However, my host was lactose-intolerant (I enjoy mixing in finely shredded Parmesan cheese), and I was fresh out of the correct kind of rice and white wine. I've done a risotto without white wine before, but it was just ok; and I would only make risotto with regular white rice if it was just for me. Then I thought of my mom and how she seems to make bread any time there is a gathering of people- and everybody loves fresh bread.

So an Italian bread... oh duh, Focaccia.
I went to work and came up with this recipes (the one I used was slightly different, so here are my alterations):

1/2 cup warm water with 1 tsp of sugar dissolved into it
2 1/2 tsp yeast

*let stand for 5 minutes or so
*mix together and slightly warm:
5-6 Tbsp Olive oil
1 1/2 cups milk

*add mix/oil mixture to yeast
*in separate bowl, mix together 5 cups of flour with any kind of herbs you would like to use. I chopped up some fresh rosemary, dried oregano, and ground garlic.
*Add to flour mix 2 tsp of salt

*combine flour mixture with wet ingredients
*knead dough on lightly floured surface; it will be fairly elastic-y after a few minutes
*spray a large bowl with non-stick and place dough into it
*cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for about an hour or until doubled

*preheat oven to 350F
*take dough out and punch down/knead to re-distribute yeast
*in a jelly-roll pan (or cookie sheet with 4 sides), drizzle a little bit of olive oil to lightly coat the bottom and sides
*put dough into pan and spread out into a flat piece that should cover most of the pan
*with fingers, make indentations about 1/2-1 inch deep every few inches or so
*drizzle olive oil on top of douch and lightly brush over
*sprinkle minced garlic cloves over top and/or add some more chopped rosemary
*sprinkle COARSE salt on top

*place pan into oven with rack towards bottom
*bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned
*move rack towards top near element or flame and bake for another 5 minutes or so. this will brown the top a little more and turn whatever chunks of garlic you have on top brown.

*take out and let cool
*cut into squares and serve with anything from a tomato sauce or pesto to shavings of Parmesan cheese and bits of prosciutto.