Italian cooking has numerous delicious dishes with few ingredients. This dish is no exception. We first saw this dish profiled on the show Pizza Pilgrims and we just had to try it.
The recipe will often have Stracchino cheese. Unable to find this we have tried both mascarpone or goat cheese and they are both delightful in this dish. We also add basil to ours. The tricky part of this dish may be getting the dough paper thin.
Check out the Pizza Pilgrim YouTube and watch a master stretch the dough as well as how to patch a hole should this happen to you. Makes 6 servings.
Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 Cup water
2 Tbsp olive oil
275 grams mascarpone cheese or goat cheese
10 torn large basil leaves
Directions
in a small bowl add the flour and salt. Make a well in the flour then add the water and oil. Mix to combine all ingredients. Once a ball has been formed place the dough onto flour dusted counter and knead the dough until it is very smooth and elastic. This takes 6-7 minutes. When the dough bounces back when poked, it is sufficiently kneaded.
Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for one hour.
Remove dough from the fridge and divide into two equal portions. Leave half in the plastic wrap for now.
On a flour dusted surface roll the dough out as thin as possible. Pick up the dough and using the back of your wrists keep turning the dough in a circular motion working your way to the edges. Gravity will help you here. Continue in this manner until you can see through the dough.
Place the dough onto a well greased pan. For this we use a flat baking sheet. Gently pull the dough so you have about an inch of dough that hangs over the edge of the baking sheet.
Place spoonfuls of cheese all over the dough. Tear up basil leaves and add on top of the cheese.
Next roll and stretch the remaining dough. Once thin enough to be transparent carefully lay over top of the cheese covered bottom layer. Push down around the edges of the dough to seal the layers. Using a serrated knife cut off the excess.
Use a pastry brush and brush the top with a quality olive oil. Now pinch a few holes into the top layer for vent holes. Place the Focaccia di Recco into a preheated 475 degree Fahrenheit oven for 5-7 minutes. Once a golden brown colour is achieved and the cheese is melted, remove from the oven.
Slice into squares and serve hot.
