The bread of life

As I was up this morning at 4am - who knows why?! - I had a lot of time on my hands and decided to bake foccaccia.

I have been meaning to bake some bread for a long time, but have always left it too late to prove the dough - clearly not an issue this morning.

What a lovely recipe this was. I decided to halve the recipe as I figured one loaf of foccaccia would do the two of us for a while - big mistake!
The result was such a success that I wish I had doubled the recipe not halved it.  The outside was nice and crusty, the inside was fluffy and bread-y, and I had sprinkled a mixture of salt, oregano and a touch of chili over the top of the oiled dough.

The bread went beautifully with the 'curried carrot soup' I made yesterday. A Thai red curry paste with some stock, carrots and red lentils all blended together with those magical 'stab mixers'.

 I wish I could be sure it will ever work so well again ;-)