I heard about a Killer Dish from my local Newspaper the Arizona Republic. Our food critic (Dominic Armato) said it was the Ligurian Style Focaccia from Pomo Restaurant. It was  a focaccia that I was not familiar with but had to try. When I tried this focaccia at Pomo it was two very thin sort of something like between a super thin Sardinian like cracker called music paper and a tortilla with melty flavorful cheese in the middle. It seemed light as heaven and was very tasty……I mean FORKING DELICIOUS…. I had to try to make one at home. The cheese used for Focaccia di Recco must be either crescenza or stracchivo cow milk cheese…..it is a cheese that is what mozzarella wants to be….It’s creamier and tastier than mozzarella.  These cheeses are not available anywhere that I know of except the internet so I used taleggio ……..I know my bad but I needed something Italian and I had that at home……. This recipe is from Ciao Italia…YOU KNOW…The Award Winning PBS TV Show with multi award winning Mary Ann Esposito. Did you know her Cooking TV Show is the longest running Food Show on TV?…..I thought I’d try out her recipe. Mary Ann’s recipe for me came out ,more cracker-like than the Focaccia I had at Pomo. (I have Ideas on how to tweak)…. But I also note that the different flour brands, different water, different ovens and different humidity all will differ any recipe. I also found my focaccia cooked up in half the time of the directions from Ciao Italia (I think there was a typo). Anyways this was my first try to make a Focaccia di Recco. Now I sort of have a better understanding of it and Thank Mary Ann Esposito for her wonderful recipe.

Ingredients for about 8 servings

3 cups ap flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons cold water

12 oz crescenza cheese

Directions

Set oven to 450 degrees F

Mix up ingredients in a large bowl.

Knead till smooth.

Cover and let rest 1/2 hour.

Divide dough in half.

Roll into a 16 inch circle and prick dough.

Place dough on an oiled 16 inch round pan.

Dot the dough with cheese.

Roll out the other half of dough and also prick and then place over the dough with cheese.

Seal the dough slightly.

Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with course sea salt.

Put in the 450 degree F oven till browned, puffy and bubbly.

In Mary Ann’s Oven this takes 30-35 minutes but in my oven it took 15 minutes.

SERVE

If you use the crescenza or stracchino it taste even better with a very small amount of warm honey. If you use taleggio like I did a little bit of reduced balsamic is delicious too!

Very Tasty. Someone requested me to make another one.