If you want to fill your kitchen with the smell of fresh-baked bread but are nervous about working with sourdough or shaping a boule, this focaccia recipe (part of our Basically Guide to Better Baking) is the best place to begin. You don’t need a starter or a mixer with a dough hook—in fact, you don’t need any bread-making equipment or experience at all. We’re not exaggerating when we say this easy recipe requires zero skill and provides ample opportunity to be amazed by yourself and the wonders of yeast.

What you do need is prep time, patience, and maybe some dinner guests for the next day. Letting the focaccia dough do its first rise in the fridge for 8 to 24 hours (like, while you're working or sleeping) means a slow ferment, giving the dough more time to develop flavor and the air bubbles that give this Italian bread its airy crumb form. It’s worth noting that cold dough is also easier to handle when you’re ready to move on to the next step, especially when handling such a wet, sticky dough. If you just can’t wait that long (we get it), it’ll need a rise time of 3 to 4 hours at room temperature.

Poking your fingers into the top of the dough to form the bread’s divots is deeply satisfying and a fun way to involve helpers if you have them. The baking vessel we recommend depends on how you plan to use your focaccia. Go with a 13x9" baking dish, like a sheet-cake pan, if you’re looking for sandwich bread and an 18x13" rimmed baking sheet for something more like a thick flatbread. At the end, it gets lacquered with garlic butter, but even without it, your homemade focaccia will impress.

Once you’ve got a handle on this focaccia recipe, feel free to play around with the toppings and seasonings: Scatter halved cherry tomatoes and chopped fresh rosemary before baking, then top with Parmesan cheese; or mix lots of black pepper and pecorino into the dough for focaccia caccio e pepe. Use this recipe to make pizza dough for a crispy, chewy foccacia pizza topped with mozzarella, caramelized onions, and arugula. Need a gluten-free focaccia recipe? We’ve got you.