Focaccina with Roasted Garlic, Scallions and Provolone

By pattie_d

Ingredients

• The bread is thick and puffs up on the grill, enabling you to also split the focaccine for sammies.
• 1 recipe basic pizza bread (follow instructions for 1 large pizza, but form dough into large rectangle)
• 1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• 1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sea salt

Details

Servings 6
Adapted from rachaelray.com

Preparation

Step 1

Pre-heat a gas grill or prepare a fire in a charcoal grill.

Divide the dough into two pieces. Using a floured rolling pin, roll each piece out to a rough rectangular shape about 12 inches long, 6-7 inches wide and 1/4-inch thick.

Carefully place one rectangle of dough on the hottest part of the grill and cook until the bottom is light golden brown and dry, about 2 minutes. Use tongs or a spatula to carefully flip the dough over and cook on the other side. Transfer to a cutting board and allow to stand for 2 minutes. Repeat with the second piece of dough.

Use a serrated knife to cut each focaccina horizontally in half: hold the top of the bread with your non-cutting hand, maintaining consistent pressure as you carefully cut it into two even halves. Smear the garlic paste evenly over the top halves of the bread and divide the provolone evenly between the bottom halves. Sprinkle the rosemary over the garlic halves and sprinkle the scallions over the cheese halves. Close the focaccine and wrap each one tightly in foil.

Place the sammies on the grill and heat, turning once, until they are hot and the cheese is melting, 5-6 minutes. Carefully unwrap the focaccine, cut into 1 1/2-inch-wide strips with the serrated knife and serve.

Roasted Garlic Paste: Roasted garlic is delicious, mild and almost sweet. Choose large heads of garlic with large, plump cloves; smaller heads with small cloves are more tedious to deal with. A very large head will yield 3-4 tablespoons of roasted garlic puree.

To roast garlic, pre-heat the oven to 350F. Slice off the top one-third inch or so of each garlic head, exposing the cloves. Wrap the garlic heads individually in foil and roast for about 1 hour, until the cloves are very soft. Let cool, still wrapped in the foil, then remove from the foil and squeeze out the soft garlic from the skins and put it in a bowl. Using a fork, mash the garlic to a paste. (The garlic paste can be covered and refrigerated for up to 1 day; bring to room temperature before using.)

Using a rolling pin or your hands, flatten dough to fit in your cookie sheet. Using finger tips, poke indentions across entire surface. Sprinkle with both cheeses, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown on top and bottom.