Pecorino & Prosciutto Focaccia

January 26, 2021

Focaccia is a flat Italian bread that is much like a buttery, crispy pan pizza crust. It is pretty much perfection on its own, but I am adding salty pecorino romano and thin sliced prosciutto over the top of the dough before baking and this focaccia is going to step it up a notch into something extra special. You can use focaccia as a side for soup or salad, cut it horizontally for a sandwich or serve it with some oil and herb de provence as a perfect appetizer. Lets get it started!

Begin by combing 1 3/4 cups of warm water with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 packet of active dry yeast. Place it in a nice warm spot for about 15 minutes. Yeast loves warmth and sugar and after the sugar we added and a nice warm catnap, your yeast will bloom and become all frothy and beautiful. My house is really chilly right now, so I set the yeast in the oven with the light turned on and it worked perfectly. This is what you are looking for…

Once your yeast has bloomed, add 5 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil and the bloomed yeast into the bowl of a stand mixer. Begin mixing on medium low with a dough hook until all of the ingredients are combined. You should stop at least once to scraped the sides and the bottom of the bowl to ensure that all of the ingredients are being brought together. Once all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, increase the sped to medium and knead for 5-6 minutes.

Once your dough feels smooth and soft, transfer it out onto a floured surface. If you have been kneading for 6 minutes and the dough is still really sticky, add a tablespoon more flour until the dough is no longer super sticky. Tacky is fine, but if it is really sticky it needs more flour. Once it is out on the flour surface, knead it by hand a few times. It should feel soft and smooth.

Now bring the dough into a round shape. Generously oil a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and transfer the dough into this bowl. Flip the dough once over, so that all of the dough is lightly covered with olive oil and then cover the bowl with plastic and a kitchen towel and allow it to rest for 60-90 minutes. We want it to double in size before proceeding.

Now that our dough is all big and puffy, we need to prepare our “bread pan”. I say “bread pan”, because we are baking our focaccia in a standard 9″x13″ cake pan instead of a typical bread pan. Prepare the pan by adding the remaining 1/2 cup of olive oil to the cake pan and swirling it all around the bottom and sides. This will seem like way too much oil, but trust me, it works. Focaccia is an oil crusted bread and it needs every bit of the oil. Scouts honor.

Begin to stretch the dough out towards all four corners of the pan with the tips of your fingers. Once it is almost fully stretched out, flip the dough over, so the bottom of the dough is now on top. The dough should be fully covered in oil. Now press the dough out fully into each corner and use your finger tips to poke little holes all over the dough. These holes will eventually create those beautiful dips and crevices that focaccia is known for.

Cover the pan with a kitchen towel and allow the dough to rest a second time for 60 minutes. It should get even more puffy and rise up the sides of the pan. While it is resting, gather your toppings.

Today, I am dressing my focaccia up with some pecorino romano and prosciutto. This is going to be a salty, crusty beautiful loaf of bread for sure! You will need about 1 cup of freshly grated pecorino romano, 4 very thin slices of prosciutto, a tablespoon of dried parsley leaves and some flaky sea salt.

First, sprinkle the dried parsley evenly over the dough and do the same with the pecorino romano. Next, cut the prosciutto into thin ribbons and twist them over the dough, placing them wherever you’d like them to be. This is your canvas, have fun with it! Last, but not least, sprinkle just a bit of the flaky sea salt. Focaccia recipes typically call for a big pinch of sea salt before baking, but with the addition of the salty cheese and meat, I think a teeny pinch will suffice.

Bake on a middle rack at 425 degrees for 25-28 minutes. You want the crust to be a golden brown and the dough to feel springy to the touch. Once the focaccia is done, transfer it onto a heat proof surface to cool for 5 minutes and then transfer the loaf out onto a cooling rack.

Check out that gorgeous crust! The cheese is all crispy, the prosciutto has nestled deep down into the crust and the edges are so buttery. This bread reminds me a bit of a really good pan pizza crust. Its just lovely and so soft on the inside too. You’ll feel how crispy the crust is and most likely assume that the crumb inside is tight and chewy, but this is so not true. The inside practically crumbles apart and just begs to be savored.

This focaccia recipe was developed by the great Anne Burrell and it is the best around. If you are looking interested in baking up plain focaccia, keep everything the same up until the point that I added the pecorino romano and prosciutto. At that point, drizzle a little more olive oil and add a big pinch of sea salt and it will be delicious! You can also bake this on a jelly roll pan, which will result in a slightly larger, thinner loaf. So, you have some options!

I hope you enjoy this focaccia recipe and make it for yourself many times over!

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