Easy Italian Recipes

This bread is from the town of Recco on the Ligurian coast. It contains no yeast, but the oil and water make the dough very elastic and strong. This means it can be rolled out very finely and stretched over huge pans, topped with cheese and then covered with a second fine layer of pastry. It is baked very quickly in an extremely hot oven and served straight away. Every restaurant in Recco offers this bread as an appetiser; it is so delicious that it's hard to leave room for anything else. Crescenza cheese is a soft, creamy cow's milk variety, but Taleggio tastes good, too.

Serves 8

250g strong white flour or '00' flour
1 level teaspoon salt, plus a good pinch for scattering over the focaccia
4 tablespoons olive oil
125ml tepid water
350g crescenza

Mix the flour and the salt together in a large mixing bowl. Pour in 1-1/2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the tepid water, then work the ingredients into a smooth dough using your hands. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 10 minutes. Leave to rest in the bowl, covered, for at least 40 minutes.
Meanwhile select your thinnest metal baking tray or roasting tin, around 35cm x 45cm. It must have a 2-3cm lip. Line the base only with baking parchment and grease well with 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil. Mix the remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons of oil with 11/2 tablespoons of cold water and set aside. Preheat the oven to maximum, usually 240°C/475°F/gas mark 9.
Turn out the dough and cut it in half. Roll out both pieces on a well-floured surface until each one is 1mm thick and the shape of the prepared tin. (You should be able to blow the side of the rolled-out dough and see it lift from the surface.) Roll up one piece of dough, lay it in the tin and unroll it to lie flat, up to and onto the lipped edges. Cut it off around the edge of tin.
Tear the stracchino into small pieces and dot them over the surface of the dough. Now place the second piece of dough over the top and secure the edges by pressing them onto the dough beneath. Make small tears in the surface to allow the steam out and then drizzle over the oil and water mixture. Sprinkle with salt and bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Remove from the oven, cut into large rectangles and serve straight away.

Buon appetito!