Bread and cheese are my love languages. Hot, crackery-crisp focaccia stuffed with oozy Crescenza? I would travel for that. Alas, I still haven’t made it to the birthplace of the fabled focaccia di Recco, but the dish was born again in my kitchen last week thanks to recipe assistance from Lidia Bastianich. After watching a couple of YouTube videos of bakers making this Ligurian specialty on its home turf, I wasn’t convinced I could even get close. But take a look. I’m pretty proud of what came out of my oven, and you won’t be surprised that it vanished immediatamente. If you can track down some Crescenza or Stracchino, you’ve got this.
Chef Lidia Bastianich’s recipe is flawless and I gratefully reproduce it here. But what helped me past my fear of failure was watching two videos that demonstrated just how thin the dough needs to be.
The dough for authentic focaccia di Recco does not contain yeast—just flour, olive oil, water and salt. It’s easy to stretch and doesn’t spring back much. I’m no pizzaiolo but I was able to stretch it paper thin without it tearing.
The New York Times ran a piece about focaccia di Recco last fall. Afterward, in the Comments section, food writer Elizabeth Minchilli posted her short video of the dish being made at a Slow Food conference in Italy.
Even more helpful was the longer video on Italia Squisita’s YouTube channel. My husband and I are huge fans of this food-themed show. Each week, an Italian chef demonstrates a traditional local specialty, then remakes the dish in a more contemporary way. One hundred percent of the time, I prefer the original.
In the focaccia di Recco video, there’s no attempt at updating—a tacit acknowledgement, I think, that this beloved creation is not to be messed with.
Crescenza is a floppy, milky, rindless cow cheese with a sour-cream flavor. I used the Italian Crescenza from 3B Latte for my attempts. California’s Bellwether Farms makes excellent Crescenza, and Wisconsin’s BelGioioso makes a Crescenza-Stracchino that I have not tried. Franklin’s Teleme is a similar cheese that ought to work.
Focaccia di Recco
Adapted from Lidia Bastianich’s recipe.
Bastianich uses round aluminum pizza pans that she does not preheat. I baked my focaccia on a preheated cast-iron pizza pan.
2 cups (240 g) bread flour, plus a little for dusting if needed
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for on top
1/3 cup (70 g) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1-1/4 pounds (565 g) Crescenza or Stracchino cheese, chilled
Put the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse to blend. In a measuring cup with a pour spout, combine ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons cold water and the olive oil. With the processor running, add the liquid through the feed tube. A dough will form immediately. Turn it out onto a work surface and knead briefly, just until you have a smooth ball. Wrap in plastic film and let rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 500°F or the highest setting. Put a cast-iron pizza pan or pizza stone in the oven to preheat for at least 30 minutes.
Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces. Rewrap 2 of the pieces in plastic film. Stretch one piece into a 12-inch round using a rolling pin or the back of your fists, like a pizza maker. Dust with a little flour if needed to prevent sticking but you shouldn’t need much as the dough is oily. I found it easiest to flatten the dough into a small circle with a rolling pin, then drape it over my clenched fists to stretch. Pay special attention to the rim of the circle, which needs to be as thin as the center.
Place the stretched circle on a sheet of parchment. If it springs back a little, use your fingers to stretch it back to 12 inches. Repeat with another piece of dough so you have two 12-inch circles on parchment.
Using half the cheese (refrigerate the rest), dollop Crescenza over one of the dough rounds in evenly spaced mounds—roughly 2 tablespoons each. You don’t need to spread it. Lift the other circle of dough off the parchment and place it on top. (Four hands are helpful here.) Press the edges together to seal. With a sharp knife, cut a half-dozen slits on top to vent air, then press gently on the surface to eliminate any air pockets. With a paring knife, trim the circumference to make a neat circle. Drizzle the surface lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
Use a pizza peel or rimless baking sheet to transfer the focaccia, still on parchment, to the preheated pan or stone. Bake until lightly browned and bubbling, about 10 minutes. Transfer the focaccia to a work surface, leaving the pan or stone in the oven, and cut into pieces of any size. Serve immediately.
Give the oven a chance to recover, then repeat the process with the remaining 2 pieces of dough and the remaining cheese.
Makes two 12-inch focaccia rounds