Focaccia goes by many names and many incarnations, varying completely depending on where it's prepared. Fugassa gardesana is a variation of the flatbread found around Lake Garda, a northern Italian lake sprawled between Lombardy, the Veneto, and Trentino Alto-Adige.
What sets fugassa gardesana apart from other types of focaccia is how, instead of being oven-baked, it's cooked stovetop, outdoors, or on a grill suspended over the embers of the hearth. A sweet focaccia etched with ridged grill marks, it's always enjoyed after the main meal. Or, if you're out and about around the lake, you can pick one up to snack on at a local bakery.
Ilda De Carli always prepares hers on a hot gradela, a type of grill she places on her stovetop, and cooks it on both sides for a few minutes. "If you don’t have a gradela, you can cook fugassa in a grill pan on the stove, but it will be different.”
As for the texture, that depends on preference. Her husband Luigi and daughter Lucia prefer it soft, while she likes hers thin and crispy.
For the white wine, De Carli usually uses Lugana, a DOC white wine produced on the lake's southern coast from the Turbiana grape, which is locally known as Trebbiano di Lugana.
Fugassa gardesana on “la gradela”
Photo: Giacomo Bretzel
Ingredients
3⅔ cup flour
1⁄2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup white wine
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
½ Tbsp. fine salt
1 untreated lemon
Mix the extra-virgin olive oil, white wine, sugar, baking soda, salt, and the grated rind of 1 untreated lemon in a large terrine. Add the flour and mix well until the dough is coarse.
Use a rolling pin to roll it into irregularly shaped discs about 8" round and 1⁄4" thick.
Cook for a few minutes on each side on the gradela, grill, or in a non-stick grill pan.
Photo: Giacomo Bretzel
Cover photo: Giacomo Bretzel