The Italian flatbread from Liguria seasoned with olive oil, salt, and sometimes rosemary is focaccia. It is a leavened, oven-baked bread whose characteristic dimples hold oil and seasoning across the surface.
Focaccia is strongly associated with Ligurian cuisine, especially the Genoese variety called focaccia genovese. In Genoa, it may be eaten at breakfast or as a snack, sometimes dipped in milk or cappuccino. Rosemary is especially common in focaccia al rosmarino, but regional recipes also use tomatoes, olives, herbs, potatoes, cheese, honey, or raisins.
The bread has much older roots than its modern popularity suggests. Ancient Rome had a hearth-baked flatbread called panis focacius, and the name comes from the Latin focus, meaning hearth or place for baking. The first recorded use of the word focaccia dates to the 14th century.
Focaccia is often compared with pizza, but the dough is treated differently: focaccia is allowed to rise after being flattened, while pizza is generally baked soon after shaping. Focaccia di Recco is another Ligurian specialty, made with paper-thin dough and cheese between the layers.