Tomato-Pepper-Onion Rosemary Focaccia {#Dairyfree #Vegan} for Dinner

It is not that I need another reason to love Portland, but the other day - Sunday to be exact - we went on a family walk through our part of town.  Somewhere along our walk a lady got out of her and asked "Do you need any tomatoes?  We have too many!"  Well, what do you think my answer would be?!  Right!  "Of course, we would love to have them but can we pick them up on our walk back home?" and the response "Where do you live? I will just drop them at your door step".  And sure enough, we returned back home and found an entire huge flat of tomatoes waiting at our door step.  Now I ask you, is that not amazing?! I certainly think so...so please let me say thank you to the very nice lady whose name I do not even know...

So it is not that we did not already have tomatoes from our CSA but I believe that you can never ever have too many tomatoes at their ultimate peak. What do you think? - I decided that it was finally time for me to make a Focaccia.  You know, thick delicious dough, topped with juicy tomatoes, onions, the super sweet red peppers we got in our CSA box last week... It was a huge hit.

Tomato-Pepper-Onion Rosemary Focaccia with optional Chorizo

Dough - slightly adapted from Tylor Florence as published on Food Network click on link or follow my version below

• 3-3/4 C flour
• 1 Tb fresh rosemary coarsely chopped {or more if you like}
• 2-1/4 tsp yeast
• 2 Tb sugar
• 1 C warm water {not hot}
• 1 Tb salt + 2 Tb warm water {not hot}
• 1/4 Olive Oil
• 1/4 C medium grind Cornmeal {for rolling out the dough}

1. Combine yeast with water and sugar.  Stir gently - after a couple of minutes
2. Slowly add flour along with rosemary {you can either use your hands - like me; or use the kneading hook of your kitchen machine} then
3. Dissolve salt in water and add to flour/yeast mixture along with the olive oil
4. Knead until a smooth elastic dough forms {when kneading by hand I like to "beat" the dough down, fold on each other and knead some more - this is a good workout :)}
5. When the dough is nice and smooth place it in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise at a warm spot.
6. Dough is ready when it has doubled in size.
7. About 30 minutes before you are ready to bake line a deeper cookie sheet with parchment paper as well as a tiny bit of olive oil
8. Roll out your dough the size of the cookie sheet, place it on the prepared cookie sheet, cover again with plastic wrap and let rise until ready to assemble {step 3 below}

Topping - Assembly

• 1-1/2 lb heirloom tomatoes {or more}
• 1/2 C basil chopped
• 1 red pepper sliced
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1/2 C Olive Oil
• 5 garlic cloves (or more) cut in half
• Additional basil leaves
• 6.oz. Chorizo {optional - if using be sure to read the label as these often contain dairy}

*** Preheat oven to  400

1. Slice and seed tomatoes before placing them in a bowl together with olive oil, basil, and a pinch of salt
2. Heat a little bit of olive oil in a pan and sautee onions as well as peppers until they are soft
3. Take plastic wrap off the dough and slightly press little dimples into the dough {using your fingers}
4. Pour a little bit of olive oil over the dough and spread it slightly over it {just about 1/2 Tb}
5. Then  top dough with - if using - chorizo, garlic, sauteed onion and peppers.  Take the tomatoes out of the "juice" and place them also on top of the focaccia
6. Before baking, pour all of the tomato-olive oil juice over the entire focaccia.
7. Bake immediately for about 30-40 minutes
8. Serve hot, or cold. You can serve it topped with additional basil. 

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did - let me just also say that it was also the perfect lunch :)