Focaccia di Recco
By CheeseDiva
Legend has it that this iconic focaccia has its origins during the Third Crusade. During the late 1100s, the citizens of Recco found refuge in Liguria's mountainous hinterland while the Saracens raided the coast. There, they created this three layered flatbread with the few ingredients they had on hand – flour, water, olive oil, salt and cheese. It has been made with the exact same ingredients ever since, although the more traditional cheeses - Formaggetta and Prescinsêua – have given way to Stracchino and Crescenza in recent times.
Ingredients
- bread flour250 g strong bread flour, plus extra for dusting
- sea salt6 g fine sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling
- water125 g water
- extra virgin olive oil25 g extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing and drizzling
- Crescenza400 g Crescenza or Stracchino cheese
Preparation
Step 1
Preparation
Place the flour and 6 g salt in a large mixing bowl. Form a well in the middle and add the water and the extra virgin olive oil. With a fork, bring the flour and liquid ingredients together until combined. Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly dusted wooden work surface. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5-6 minutes. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and leave to rest for at least an hour in the fridge.
Divide the dough into two equally-sized pieces. Keep one the dough balls covered in plastic wrap and roll out the other one with a rolling pin on lightly-dusted work surface. Keep it as round and as thin as possible while rolling, then take it in your hands and stretch it very carefully to obtain the required transparency. Use the weight that accumulates at the stretched dough's edges to help you. Your sheet of dough is ready once you can easily see the outline of our hands through the dough and it has a larger circumference than your round baking tray. Carefully lay it down on one of your lightly-greased round baking trays. Place spoonfuls of Crescenza or Stracchino cheese over your transparent sheet of dough.
Unwrap the remaining piece of dough. Roll and stretch again as detailed above. Lay this transparent sheet over the spoonfuls of cheese. Run a non-serrated knife or pastry wheel around the edges of your baking tray to remove the excess dough. Using your fingers, go around the edges of your focaccia again to create a seal between the two dough layers. Gather the excess dough and set aside for rolling into your second focaccia. Pinch holes into the top layer of dough to allow steam to come out during cooking. Sprinkle with a pinch of fine sea salt and drizzle and brush with some extra virgin olive oil.
Bake in an oven preheated to its highest possible temperature (this can range from 240 to 280 º C in most domestic ovens) for about 5-6 minutes, or until golden brown and the cheese melts. Remove from the oven, slice and serve piping hot as a snack or an appetiser to a meal.