Focaccia di Recco
Bonjour à l’Italie ! Je visite ma sœur, Carol, qui a habité à Rapallo depuis jullet 2017. Rapallo est une petite ville dans nord-est d’Italie dans la région de Liguria, qui est connu « la Riviera d’Italie. » Alors Rapallo est une très belle ville, situé à Golfe Tugullio, près de Portofino et les « Cinque Terre. »
Greetings from Italy ! I’m visiting my sister Carol, who’s been living in Rapallo since last July. Rapallo is a smalll town in the northeastern region of Liguria, known as the “Italian Riviera.” Rapallo is a beautiful town, located on the Gulf of Tugullio, close to Portofino and the Cinque Terre.
View from Carol's apartment in Rapallo....
Carol m’a suggéré que nous prenions un cours de cuisine, donc dernière semaine, nous prenions un cours avec Francesco Soldi, une jeune chef à Gênes. Il a une affaire de restauration et il est un chef de cuisine typique de la Ligurie. Carol et moi étions les seuls dans le cours et nous avons cuisiné deux types de sauce tomate, pizza, focaccia di Recco et panna cotta. Les recettes sont simple avec quelques ingrédients, mais tout était très bon et savoureux.
Carol has wanted to take an Italian cooking class for some time, and so last week we took a class with Francesco Soldi, a young chef in Genoa. He has a catering business and specializes in classic Ligurian cuisine. Carol and I were the only ones in the class. We made two types of tomato sauce, pizza, focaccia di Recco and panna cotta. The recipes were simple with only a few ingredients, and everything was very good and quite tasty.
Making panna cotta with chef Francesco
Making the puttanesca sauce with chef
Puttanesca sauce
Pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil and a few olives (for me)
Fresh from the oven!
On peut demander: que est-ce que c’est “focaccia di Recco”? C’est une spécialité de la ville ligurian de Recco, qui est prés de Rapallo. C’est focaccia très mince farci du fromage de Stracchino. Apparemment, toutes les villes ligurian font leur propre focaccia, mais le focaccia di Recco est le plus connu. Recco est connu que le ligurian capital gastronomique et dans 2012 la focaccia di Recco a reçu le statut de IGP (indication géographique protégée) par l’EU. Donc techniquement, comme champagne ne deviens que Champagne, on ne peut avoir que la focaccia di Recco à Recco.
You might ask : What is focaccia di Recco ? It’s a specialty of the Ligurian town of Recco which is close to Rapallo. It’s very thin focaccia stuffed with Stracchino cheese. Apparently, towns all over Liguria produce their own focaccia, but focaccia di Recco is the most famous. Recco is known as Liguria's gastronomic capital, and in 2012 it’s focaccia received IGP (protected geographical indication) status from the EU. So technically, like Champagne is only from Champagne, you can only get focaccia di Recco in Recco.
Comment faire “focaccia di Recco”
Ingrédients:
200g de farine
3-5 cuillères huiles d'olive
fromage de Stracchino
sel au goût
eau comme nécessaire
lait comme nécessaire
How to make « focaccia di Recco »
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
3-5 T olive oil
Stracchino cheese (or mascarpone if Stracchino not available)
salt to taste
water as needed
milk as needed
On a clean surface, spread flour in a circle making a hole in the middle. Pour about 1/2 cup (100 grams) of water and 2-3 T olive oil in the middle of the flour and sprinkle flour with salt. Carefully mix flour, water and oil with a fork, taking care not to break the ring of flour.
Add water as needed. When ingredients are mostly combined, work dough with your hands (palms only) picking up all bits of flour. Dough should be firm but still a bit sticky. Knead dough with palms for about 5 minutes. Form into a ball, cover with a tea towel and set aside at room temperature for about 15-20 minutes.
Kneading dough with palms
Lightly dust work surface with flour. Cut dough in half. Flatten one-half of dough and dust with flour. Using a rolling pin, form dough into thin round disc about 2-3 inches (5-8cm) larger than baking pan. The dough should be pretty elastic, so you can actually stretch dough by picking it up and allowing gravity and gentle stretching with your fingers to enlarge it. It should be about 1/8 inch (3-4mm) thick. Baking pan should be about 15-16 inches (38-40cm) in diameter (pizza pan is perfect). Rectangular cookie sheet will work as well, in which case roll dough to fit sheet. Stretch dough over edges of pan.
Rolling out the dough
Dot dough with spoonfuls (2-3 T each) of cheese about 2 inches (5cm) apart. Use as much cheese as you want. Roll out second piece of dough as the first and stretch over the pan. Press two layers of dough together at edges. Cut generous holes in top layer of dough, pour several tablespoons of olive oil over dough. Pour about 1/2 cup (120ML) of milk over dough as well.
Focaccia di Recco ready for the oven
Place in oven preheated to 400 degree F (200 degrees C) for about 15-20 minutes. Check after about 10 minutes and if dough has formed large bubbles, break bubbles with the handle of a wooden spoon. Focaccia is done when top is lightly browned.
Breaking large bubbles after about 10-12 minutes of baking
Focaccia di Recco done perfectly!
Cut into squares or wedges and enjoy while warm. Italians eat focaccia di Recco like pizza for lunch or as an aperitivo with a glass of wine.
Delizioso!
