Recco Cheese Focaccia

La storia di questo piatto

Born on the rocky Ligurian shore where the sea wind carves the stone and the olive trees whisper ancient patience, Focaccia di Recco is not merely bread — it is a coastline pressed thin as memory, a village folded into itself like a secret passed from grandmother to granddaughter across centuries of salt and stone.

Ingredienti

• 300 g Soft wheat flour
• 150 ml Warm water
• 8 g Fine sea salt
• 40 ml Extra virgin olive oil
• 250 g Crescenza (Stracchino)
• pochi rametti Fresh rosemary (optional)

Preparazione

1. Make a well with the flour and pour the lukewarm water, salt, and half of the oil into the center: knead it with your hands, pushing with the heel of your palm and folding the dough over itself, until you feel the dough become smooth and soft beneath your fingertips, with no lumps remaining. Cover it with a kitchen towel and let it rest for about fifteen minutes at room temperature: it relaxes this way, and afterward it will be a pleasure to stretch it out without it shrinking back on you.
2. Divide the dough into two equal portions, weighing them by eye or with a scale if you want to be precise. Take the first piece and stretch it directly onto the oiled baking sheet, pulling it with your hands or a rolling pin until it becomes thin as a veil, just two or three millimeters thick: if you can see the baking sheet showing through beneath the dough, you've reached the right thickness.
3. Break the cold Crescenza cheese into small pieces with your hands and scatter it in little flakes across the entire surface of the dough, keeping a couple of centimeters away from the edges: the coldness of the cheese helps prevent the dough from becoming too wet while it bakes. Cover it with the second layer of dough, stretched thin in the same way, as if you were tucking in a light blanket.
4. Press the edges with your fingers to bring the two layers together well and seal in the cheese, then prick the entire surface with the tines of a fork: this gesture serves to release the air during baking, so the focaccia stays flat and doesn't puff up into bubbles. Brush it with the remaining oil and finish with a few needles of rosemary, crumbling it between your fingers to release more of its fragrance.
5. Put it into the oven, already heated well to 220 degrees, and let it bake for just under fifteen minutes: watch the surface—it should turn golden in patches and you'll smell the aroma of toasted bread and rosemary filling your kitchen. Bring it to the table while it's still hot and break it apart with your hands, the way you do at home: it tastes better that way than if you cut it with a knife.