Planning a picnic or an evening with friends? Try this delicious re-milled durum wheat semolina focaccia, which can be made with either natural leavening or yeast and filled with roasted turkey ham and asparagus. It’s a soft and thin shell of tasty leavened dough perfect for a work lunchbox.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Portions: 4/8 servings
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring
Ingredients
- 1.75 oz Sourdough starter (or 0.2 oz of fresh yeast)
- 4 cups Re-milled durum wheat semolina
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp Water
- 0.5 oz Fine salt
- 8.8 oz Turkey ham
- 1.1 lbs Asparagus
- to taste Extra virgin olive oil
Preparation
1) If using sourdough starter, refresh it as you normally do. When it has risen, take 1.75 oz and place it in a mixing bowl. Add all the durum wheat semolina and 150 ml of water. Knead coarsely and let it rest for 20 minutes, well covered.
2) If using fresh yeast, dissolve it in 150 milliliters of room temperature water, and add all the re-milled semolina. Mix coarsely, cover, and let it rest for 20 minutes.3) After 20 minutes, whether you used the natural leavening method or the yeast method, add almost all the remaining water (reserve two tablespoons to dissolve the fine salt), and knead until you get a smooth and soft dough.
4) Finally, dissolve the salt in the remaining water and add it to the dough, working it until the water is fully absorbed.
5) Transfer the dough onto a table sprinkled with some durum wheat semolina, knead it by hand for a few more moments, and finally divide it into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Cover and let them rise.
6) In the meantime, bring some water to a boil. When it boils, add the whole asparagus, washed and trimmed of only the discarded parts. Salt them and let them boil for 5 minutes, then drain and let them cool.
7) When the dough pieces have risen, oil a round baking pan. First, roll out the larger dough piece and place it in the pan. Fill with slices of turkey ham and then the asparagus.
8) Roll out the smaller dough piece and cover the focaccia. Join the excess outer edges of both dough sheets and roll them together, inward towards the pan, to form a border all around the focaccia. Cover and let it rise again.
9) As soon as the focaccia has risen, preheat the oven to 392°F and bake it immediately, at middle height. Let it cook for about 20 minutes or until it becomes golden both on the bottom and top. Finally, remove it from the oven and let it cool slightly before cutting.
