The secret to achieving a perfect Recco cheese focaccia?

Use a strong type 00 wheat flour (or Manitoba), good extra virgin olive oil, stracchino cheese, no yeast, and most importantly, make sure the dough is thin. When working with the dough, you should be able to see your knuckles.

As you can see, the ingredients are few because we Genoese people are frugal by nature. 🙂

Curiosity, the Recco cheese focaccia, in the 90s, obtained the IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) mark and can only be prepared in certain towns like Recco, Avegno, Camogli, and Sori. Outside of these towns, the name must even be changed and often you will find “type” Recco cheese focaccia on menus, pay attention to it.

But why is it called Recco cheese focaccia?

In the early 1900s, the owner of an inn in Recco named Manuelina invented this focaccia, starting from fried cheese focaccias.

This place still exists and if you come to my area, you absolutely must go there to eat this magnificent product, I leave you the link https://www.manuelinafocacceria.it/recco/, on this site you will also find the history and photos that take us back 120 years.

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Economical
Rest time: 1 Hour
Preparation time: 30 Minutes
Portions: 4
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Local
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients for Recco Cheese Focaccia

1 1/2 cups strong type 00 wheat flour (alternatively "Manitoba" flour)
300 stracchino cheese
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (plus the amount needed to grease the baking tray)
1/2 cup still water (just warm, at room temperature in summer)
to taste salt

Tools Needed to Prepare the Focaccia

I suggest my bowls that I also use for salads and soups.

The baking tray in Stainless Steel

The silicone pastry board, I use for sentimental reasons, a wooden board inherited from my mother. But wood, even with thorough washing, does not lose its bacterial load and being porous, is fertile ground for molds, so if you can, do not use it.

Silicone rolling pin, is also preferable to wooden ones.

4 Bowls
1 Baking Tray
1 Pastry Board
1 Silicone Rolling Pin

Steps to Prepare Cheese Focaccia

The preparation is very simple: in a bowl, put the flour, warm water, oil, salt, and work everything together until you get a soft and smooth dough.

Let the dough rest for an hour at room temperature, covered with a cloth. I usually leave the dough in the bowl and close it with plastic wrap.

After an hour, divide the dough into two parts. The advice is not to divide the dough into equal parts because the part you will use as the base of the focaccia should be slightly larger than the part that will close your focaccia.

Dust the dough above and below and roll it out with a rolling pin to make it thin.

Now the most complicated step that will make the difference: put your closed fists under the dough and rotate it so the dough becomes thinner, being careful not to form holes.

When you see the knuckles under the dough, you can place the dough in the previously greased baking tray.

Place the stracchino in small pieces the size of a walnut all over the base.

Roll out the other part of the dough with the same procedure, cover the base with the second sheet and seal the edges using your fingers, make small holes of about 1 centimeter by pinching the dough in several places, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and bake at the highest temperature of your hot oven for about 15 minutes.

The cheese focaccia is delicious as it is, but if you want to enrich it, you can also add a little pesto.

Enjoy your meal!