Focaccia di Recco
Apart from the name it has little in common with ordinary focaccia: it contains no yeast, does not rise and is as thin as paper. It is two sheets of dough stretched to translucency with cheese between them, baked ten minutes at maximum heat. It holds protected geographical indication (PGI) status and has one iron rule: holes are torn in the top sheet, so the steam escapes instead of inflating the whole thing like a balloon.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Resting 45 min
- Stretching 20 min
- Baking 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead a smooth, elastic dough
Mix the flour with the water, oil and salt and knead 10 minutes, until smooth and very elastic. No yeast: focaccia di Recco is not meant to rise, it is meant to be thin. Gluten is the only thing holding the sheet.
Ingredients: 300 g bread flour · 150 ml water · 3 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp salt
Rest 45 minutes under a bowl
Divide into two balls, rub them with a little oil and cover with a bowl for 45 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oven to 250°C (or its maximum). Resting is obligatory — unrelaxed dough springs back as you stretch and tears before it turns translucent.
Ingredients: 300 g bread flour · 150 ml water · 3 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp salt
Stretch the first sheet until translucent
Roll out one ball, then stretch it over the backs of your hands, turning it, until light shows through. If a hole appears, pinch it shut and keep going — a normal part of the process.
Ingredients: 300 g bread flour · 150 ml water · 3 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp salt
Over the backs of the hands, until light comes through.Line the tray and dot on the cheese
Oil the tray with a spoonful of the finishing oil. Lay the sheet on it with an overhang, and dot the cheese in evenly spaced blobs, without spreading it. The blobs melt and merge; spread cheese escapes at the sides.
Ingredients: 400 g stracchino
Evenly spaced blobs — do not spread it.Cover with the second sheet and trim
Stretch the second ball the same way, lay it over the cheese and press the edges together, then trim the excess by rolling a pin along the rim of the tray. Pressed edges seal the cheese in — a leak sends it onto the tray.
Ingredients: 300 g bread flour · 150 ml water · 3 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp salt
Tear holes in the top sheet
Pinch the top sheet in a dozen or more places, tearing small holes. The crucial step: steam from the cheese has to escape. Without holes the whole thing inflates like a balloon and the cheese bursts out at one point.
Ingredients: 300 g bread flour · 150 ml water · 3 tbsp olive oil · 1 tsp salt
A dozen holes — the steam needs a way out.Bake ten minutes at maximum heat
Drizzle with the rest of the oil, scatter with salt and bake on the lowest shelf 10 minutes at 250°C, until dark charred blisters appear. Short and very hot — longer baking dries the dough and splits the cheese, which releases its fat.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp olive oil · ½ tsp sea salt
Serve immediately
Cut into pieces and serve at once. Focaccia di Recco is best in the first minutes out of the oven — after that the cheese firms and the crisp dough softens.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp olive oil · ½ tsp sea salt
Before you start
The cheese must be very soft
Stracchino and crescenza are fresh, creamy cheeses that melt without stringing. Substitutes: mascarpone and mozzarella half and half. Curd cheese and hard cheese will not do: curd cheese does not melt, and hard cheese cannot melt in ten minutes.
Thinness is everything
The sheet should be under a millimetre. That takes practice and the first two attempts usually tear. Stretch slowly over the backs of your hands, never with your fingers — fingertips punch through, the backs of the hands spread the pressure.
A wide, shallow tray
In Recco it is baked in large, round, shallow pans with a low rim, along which a rolling pin easily trims off the excess dough. At home an ordinary flat oven tray works best; in a deep tin the edges come out soft and pale.
