Smoked garlic focaccia

Britain has enriched me enormously – its multicultural backdrop has influenced every part of me: my food, my ideas, my creativity – and this recipe is testimony to that mixing of cultures. I’ve allied my national beloved bulb of fragrance and Frenchness with an Italian classic as homage to a bread that I ate in Italy, one of the greatest I tasted in my life – it was pure delight: rustic and topped with caramelised garlic cooked in balsamic vinegar. Making focaccia is a brilliant, easy way of getting into bread-making and mastering the mysteries of yeast, which of course creates the magic of the fermentation within the bread. This hearty, simple version of focaccia has an unusual smokey tang.