dough
baking
cheese
italian
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There's one dish chef Scott Conant says he'll never take off the menu at his Mora Italian restaurant in Phoenix, AZ: focaccia di Recco. "It's a very specific focaccia from a small Italian town called Recco, in Liguria," he explains. "This is really thin focaccia with beautiful, creamy stracchino cheese that we mix with a little bit of ricotta. We pipe the cheese onto the stretched-out dough, put another layer of dough on top and then we bake it in the oven." It's ready when the dough is browned and crispy and the cheese is melted. "And it is so good... forget about it!... It's everybody's favorite thing on the table when we serve it to them." 

Pro Tip from Scott: At the restaurant, we use a pizza oven that is almost 700°F, so the focaccia cooks in just two or three minutes. For the best results at home, turn your oven as high as it will go, and if you have a convection setting, use it. It will increase the temperature by about fifteen degrees.  

For more popular recipes from Scott, check out his Make-Ahead Antipasto Salad and Spinach Ricotta Gnudi. 

Ingredients

For the Dough (makes 8 balls about 6.8 ounces each):
  • 2 cups (400 grams) warm water
  • 1 cup (200 grams) EVOO
  • 8 cups (1000 grams) "00" pizza flour (Scott likes Caputo's)
  • 1 tablespoon (15 grams) salt
  • Olive oil spray
For the Cheese Mix:
  • 2 ¼ cups (500 grams) stracchino cheese
  • Generous ½ cup (150 grams) ricotta (Scott likes Del Pastaio's)
To Finish:
  • EVOO
  • Flaky sea salt

Yield

Serves: Makes four 13-inch-round focaccia

Preparation

For the dough, in a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the warm water and EVOO. Add the flour and salt and mix on medium speed for 6 to 8 minutes. Let the dough rest for about 20 minutes. 

Portion the dough into 8 balls about 6.8 ounces each and place in a container lightly spritzed with oil to prevent a crust from forming. Cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours. Allow to come to room temperature before using. 

Preheat the oven to as high as it will go (see Tip). 

For the cheese mix, in a stand mixer, whip the stracchino and ricotta until thoroughly combined. Place in a piping bag, if you like. 

To finish, stretch one of the dough balls paper thin, about 14 inches in diameter. Place it on a perforated 13-inch round pizza pan, allowing the excess dough to drape over the sides. (It helps to place the pan on top of an 11-inch-wide lazy Susan or other elevated object so the excess dough can hang freely.) 

Place 6 or 7 dollops (about 1 tablespoon each) of the cheese mix onto the dough, spacing them out about 2 inches apart and keeping them about ½ inch away from the edges. Stretch a second dough ball paper thin, about 14 inches in diameter, and place over the cheese, allowing the excess dough to drape over the sides. 

Cut off the excess dough with a knife. It's best to angle the knife, using the pizza pan edge as your guide, to keep the shape round and to help seal the two layers of dough. Brush the top with EVOO and garnish with flaky sea salt.  

Bake until golden brown and bubbly (the time will vary depending on your oven temperature). Brush with more EVOO, if desired, and cut with pizza cutter into squares. Repeat with the remaining dough balls and cheese mix.