Focaccia di Recco

An unleavened, cheese-stuffed flatbread from Recco, Liguria: two paper-thin sheets of oil-enriched, entirely unleavened dough sandwiching a layer of soft, fresh cheese, baked very hot and briefly until the top blisters and browns. Documented since at least 1198 and granted EU Protected Geographical Indication (IGP) status in 2012. Several sources describe it as more accurately an ancient savoury pie than a true focaccia, let alone a pizza — included here as a related flatbread tradition, not an undisputed pizza style.

Disputed: Multiple independent culinary sources describe this dish as more accurately an ancient unleavened savoury pie than a true 'focaccia' (a leavened, dimpled bread), let alone a pizza in the Neapolitan-descended sense. Included here as a related flatbread tradition given its topped, baked, shareable construction, with the classification dispute preserved rather than resolved — the same disciplined treatment already applied to Sardenaira and Flammekueche.

• Entirely unleavened dough — no yeast at all, unlike every other style in this catalogue
• Two paper-thin sheets of dough sandwiching a layer of soft, fresh cheese (traditionally prescinseua or crescenza)
• Baked very hot and briefly until the top blisters and browns, similar in spirit to Flammekueche's high-heat, short bake
• EU Protected Geographical Indication (IGP) status since 2012

Hydration

50-58 percent of flour weight (typically 54 percent of flour weight)

Salt

1.5-2 percent of flour weight (typically 1.8 percent of flour weight)

Oil

4-7 percent of flour weight (typically 5 percent of flour weight)

Mixing: Hand or machine mixed to a firm, oil-enriched, entirely unleavened dough

Kneading: Brief kneading, then rested rather than fermented

Shaping: Stretched by hand into two separate paper-thin sheets, one for the base and one for the top

Expected crumb: None in the usual sense — a thin, crisp, unleavened sheet

Tolerance: A firm, oil-enriched dough stretched extremely thin by hand; the lack of any leavening means there is no fermentation window to manage, unlike almost every other style in this catalogue

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• Type 00 flourTraditionalWell established

  A finely milled Italian flour extensible enough to be hand-stretched paper-thin without tearing.

1. Stretch two separate sheets of dough paper-thin by hand
2. Lay the base sheet in an oiled pan
3. Distribute torn pieces of soft, fresh cheese across the base
4. Cover with the second sheet and seal the edges
5. Pierce the top sheet in a few places to let steam escape
6. Bake very hot and briefly until blistered and browned

Traditional method: Very hot deck or domestic oven, brief bake

• Hand stretchingDefiningWell established

  Produces the exceptionally thin, crisp sheets that define this style; a rolling pin cannot achieve the same even, minimal thinness by hand.

A rich, molten, milky cheese interior contrasted against an exceptionally thin, crisp, blistered exterior — no tomato, no toppings, defined entirely by the dough-cheese contrast

Cut into wedges and shared immediately while the cheese is molten

Cut into wedges · Several wedges per person, best eaten immediately, hot from the oven

Less suitable: This style is traditionally cheese-only with no other toppings; adding sauce or toppings moves it away from being a genuine focaccia di Recco. The traditional prescinseua/crescenza cheese is not yet represented in the cheese catalogue — documented as a catalogue gap rather than resolved inaccurately.

Derived from this style’s own structural ingredient data — see the construction order & topping load guide for why order varies by style.

1. Sauce: No sauce (bianca style)

A very hot domestic oven and a preheated stone or steel reproduce this style reasonably well, though few home ovens reach true commercial peak heat; stretching the dough evenly by hand is the most difficult technique to master at home

• Using a leavened dough, which contradicts the style's entirely unleavened, IGP-protected definition
• Serving it after it has cooled, when the defining molten cheese interior has already set

Standard Ligurian focaccia (focaccia genovese): A separate, leavened, dimpled Ligurian bread tradition — focaccia di Recco's total absence of yeast and its cheese-stuffed, two-sheet construction make it structurally distinct from ordinary Ligurian focaccia despite the shared name.